Blade of Emptiness, Maelstrom of Honor
by FullofSeoul
Summary: Despair. Helplessness. Emptiness. Betrayed by the village he vowed to protect, he locks his heart away. To become the Blade of Emptiness, the Cuarto Espada. Now, given a chance to return to the place that forsaked him, Ulquiorra is sure to take his vengeance. Konoha should've never crossed him.
1. Sadness and Sorrow

Blade of Emptiness, Maelstrom of Honor

Chapter 1: Sadness and Sorrow

Despair.

Pain.

Hurt.

Such were the emotions of one Uzumaki Naruto. He raised his broken cerulean eyes to gaze at the crowd in front of him. Cold, hate-filled eyes stared back.

* * *

_Tsunade gazed at the beaten boy in front of him, her face devoid of emotion._

_"Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, for failure of an S-ranked mission and the attempted murder of Uchiha Sasuke, you are held responsible. Furthermore, remains of the battle at the Valley of the End show copious remnants of the Kyuubi's vile chakra. For failure on your lifetime mission to contain the Kyuubi and protect Konoha, you are condemned. Have you anything to say?"_

_Naruto raised his eyes at his godmother and spat. His once life-filled eyes stared impassively back at the Hokage._

_"I have done naught but follow the mission. I was ordered to bring Sasuke back and I was told to use force when force was necessary. Is this how you repay me? Has Konoha fallen so low?" _

_Giving no sign of having registered Naruto's protests, The Slug Sannin waved her hands, "The Jinchuuriki has been found guilty. He shall be put to death in three day's time on October 10th. Take him away."_

* * *

The crowd below him jeered, crying out for the death of the Demon Brat. Naruto's expression did not change, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing his pain. _I served you faithfully, _he thought bitterly. _And you pay me back like this, with betrayal..._

* * *

_Naruto's cell was cold, barren, empty. His lacerated arms hung awkwardly at his sides, hung aloft only by the chains that dug into his bloody wrist. If the chains had been replaced by a cross and he had been forced to stand, he would be a perfect image someone crucified. How fitting. His blonde hair was streaked with dirt and matted with blood, covering his dull sapphire eyes._

_"You disappoint me Naruto."_

_Said blond gave no response save for a rekindling of his dead eyes with anger._

_Kakashi gave him no mind. "Attempted murder of your teammate? Use of the __Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)__, a deadly technique only to used on enemy shinobi? The Yondaime must be rolling in his grave right now, you using his technique for such an immoral cause. You truly are a failure, Naruto, both as my student and as a shinobi." he murmured, his voice laden with sorrow. As if he actually cared. _

_At that Naruto flinched. He leveled his eyes at the silver haired Jonin and smirked, "Perhaps I am a failure. 'Those who break the rules are trash'? Perhaps I am trash." Naruto's smirk grew into a vulpine grin," 'But those who abandon their comrades are worse that trash.' What does that make you Kaka-sen-"_

_SMACK!_

_Kakashi stood with his hand outstretched, panting slightly, eyes - no, eye - wide with fury, "You dare..."_

_Naruto's grin widened and he began to laugh. He roared with laughter, an insane gleam in his eyes. Kakashi stiffened. The Cyclops Jonin spun on his heels and stormed out of the jail cell, Naruto's mocking laughter chasing him the whole way._

* * *

Naruto scanned the crowd, looking for at least one sympathetic face, one understanding soul. There were none. His fellow genins, those he thought of as comrades, were absent. Were they unable to watch their brother be falsely accused and killed? Or were they too arrogant to decide to grace the Demon brat with their company when he needed them most?

* * *

_It stormed that night. The clouds rained down on the village as if crying for the lost integrity of the village. Lightning crackled and thunder flashed. It was dark. Much like Naruto's heart._

_"Raise your head now, Dobe. Stand tall. After all, even the maggot should pay homage to the hawk that will devour him." Sasuke's somber tone was a sharp contrast to his mocking smile and his derisive laughter._

_Naruto was silent. He would not give the Uchiha the satisfaction of letting him see his hurt. He had thought they were brothers, people who could relate to each other. What a foolish dream._

_"No response?" Sasuke leaned in as lightning flashed, lighting up the lone window of Naruto's cell and illuminating an eerie shadow on his contemptuous face, "Well let me ask you a little question. Don't you find it odd that Tsunade sentenced you to death? The same Tsunade that kissed your cheek and gave you your beloved necklace that you wear right now?" he asked, his crimson eyes twinkling with twisted mirth._

_Naruto stirred. His startlingly blue eyes shot sparks at Sasuke's scarlet, "How do you about that? Only those that witnessed it know."_

_Sasuke broke out into laughter, "Why? Because I wrenched it out of her pathetic mind! The bitch barely even gave a fight! AHAHAHA! She was moping around the office, mourning and crying and apologizing to you after we forced her to condemn you! I and a few helpers placed her in such a strong genjutsu that she has no hope to recover."_

_Naruto shook with anger as he connected the dots, "Don't you dare hurt her anymore Sasuke. I swear to god I'll hunt you down and make you wish you'd never cross me." He growled lowly. His eyes flashed crimson, "I'll show you despair." _

_Sasuke bent over as if punched, his bangs shadowing his eyes. His shoulder shook violently as if crying. Crying, yeah right. He threw his head back and laughed uproariously._

_"AHAHAHAHHAAHA Dobe, you must've lost your mind! You are the one locked in here and I am the one roaming free. Do not presume to threaten me. I am the last Uchiha! I am Elite! I am-"_

_"You are weak. I pity you Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke stepped back as if struck, his mood taking an 180-turn, his fury almost palpable._

_A small smile flickered on Naruto's visage. "Wait for me, I will surely return. And I will enlighten you."_

* * *

Naruto raised his head high, chin up. If he was to die, he would go out with dignity. _Deserter? Traitor? No, It was I who was deserted, I who was abandoned._

* * *

_Naruto opened his eyes and rubbed them with chained hands. Today was the big day. He had long since given up any sense of optimism and hope that the village would see sense._

_The door to his cell creaked open and he looked up to see soft lavender iris' staring back at him, trembling with barely contained tears. "N..Naruto-kun..."_

_The blonde shifted himself into a better position to glare at the pale-eyed Hyuga. If he was going to get mocked, he might as well save himself a shred of dignity and stand tall. "What? Have you come to jeer as well? Well then, no need to hold back. I remember Kakashi and Sasuke expressing themselves quite poetically. Hell, even Sakura had some memorable words. Come, see if you can top them."_

_Hinata flinched at his harsh words and collapsed onto her knees, sobbing. Her shoulders shook violently and Naruto was racked with a sense of guilt. Perhaps he had been too harsh. After all, Hinata never really made fun of him before. He reached out a hand to pat her shoulder but hissed in pain when his shackles restrained further movement and dug into his chaffed, raw wrists. _

_"N..Naruto-kun..." she started, but stopped when a hiccup racked her feminine frame. She set her lips in a thin line and willed her tears to stop flowing. Her last words with her love weren't going to be with her being a sobbing wreak. "Naruto-kun... Forgive me."_

_It was Naruto's turn to flinch. Those two words had never been spoken to him before, they were as rare as three other words. "Excuse me?"_

_Hinata's tears ran anew despite her best efforts to still them, marking a shining track down her pale cheeks, "I..I'm sorry. I should have been stronger... I should have been there for you... I should have stopped them somehow... I should have-"_

_Naruto's eyes softened and he gently raised his hand to hold a finger to his lips. It was the best he could do as his bonds stopped them him from reaching to her. Damn these stupid things. "Hush Hinata. You've done enough. Letting me know you care is enough."_

_Hinata's eyes widened and she reached out a trembling hand to grasp Naruto's own rough one. "But it's not!" she cried out, her lithe frame shaking, with anger or sadness he couldn't tell. "Naruto... I wish we could've been closer. I have so many regrets. I wanted to talk to you, get to know you." She smiled sadly._

_The Uzumaki's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, "Why though? I'm the village pariah. No one likes me, and I'm even being killed just to prove a point. Why me?" The blue-eyed jinchuuriki frowned when he felt a faint prickling in his eyes as tears threatened to form._

_"Because..." Hinata strengthened her grip on Naruto's hands and leaned in to give him a chaste kiss on his lips, surprising herself with her own boldness. Maybe it was because she had nothing to lose. "You're always so strong, you never let anything depress you. You lift me up when I am down. You are my sun when I am left in the dark. You are my inspiration and I... I love you. And I'll always remember you."_

_Naruto's tears began to fall. Those three words. It was all he had ever wanted to hear. How long had we waited for somebody to utter those words to him? How many nights had he cried, wishing somebody was there to whisper assurance and love to his broken heart? Here she was. And he couldn't even reach out to her._

_"Hinata?" he whispered softly, his voice breaking._

_"Y-Yes?"_

_"I want you take my necklace."_

_Hinata shook her head vehemently. "No! It's yours, you earned it! That's the Shodai Hokage's necklace, it's a national treasure. Its worth could buy mountains and -"_

_"And it means nothing to me when I am dead. And you, you mean everything to me." Hinata's breath hitched. Naruto smiled as reassuringly as he could, "Besides, think of it as collateral. One day, I'll be back to retrieve it. I promise! And I never go back on a promise, 'cause thats-"_

_"our Ninja Way" (Nindo)." They said together. Hinata smiled._

_Naruto smiled back. He raised her hand that was intertwined in his and placed it on his chest. "Go now. Remember. I am only truly gone from your heart when there are none left that love me."_

* * *

I was forsaken by all. All but her.

* * *

Naruto stepped next to the alter where he would be tried and executed. He sent out a thought to the fox inside him, a parting message if you will.

'_You ready?'_

The reply was instant. Huh, maybe the fox was nervous too. **'That's a question I'd like to ask you, gaki.' **

'_I have my share of regrets. You know, one of them is never getting to know you.'_

**'GAHAHAHA! Brat, you're a odd one. Getting to know the demon who killed your parents and ruined your life? GAHAHAH!'** Ok, maybe he wasn't nervous...

_'Why not? I'm about to go out with a bang here, might as well leave by reconciling with you... you stupid furball"_

**'...Bah.'**

_'You know, I've always wondered what your real name was. It can't be Kyuubi can it? I mean, Nine-tails is a pretty lame name.'_

**'...'**

Naruto sighed, he didn't know why he tried, it wasn't like he expected an answer. He held his head high as the Hokage and the Council approached the dais.

"Citizens of Konohagakure no Sato, we have come here to bear witness to the execution of former Konoha shinobi and jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune Uzumaki Naruto." Tsunade declared, raising her hands. The crowd roared their approval.

Naruto was dragged and chained to an alter, where his arms were bound straight out on his sides. He was completely immobilized and helpless. He hated it.

"As a former shinobi, he is given the honor of death through a fellow shinobi. He was brought into the world by shinobi, lived in a world of shinobi, and will die through a shinobi." Tsunade's inflection did not change, but strangely a solitary tear slid silently down her cheeks. "Will the appointed step forward."

Sasuke did, wearing a solid black kimono emblazoned with an Uchiha fan on the back. He raised his hands and they began to crackle with compressed lightning. "Chidori (One Thousand Birds)."

Tsunade raised her voice once more, "Has the condemned have any last words?"

Naruto raised his eyebrows and whispered to her, "I understand. I forgive you." The Slug Sannin's flinched and for a moment, the pain of her actions were etched on her visage. And it was gone, replaced by a cold mask.

Naruto panned the crowd in search on one face, and when he located her, he gave a warm smile, '_I love you too, and I'm so sorry.' _he mouthed. She gasped and raised her hands to her mouth.

Sasuke clicked his teeth to regain the spotlight.

And he charged.

Naruto's eyes widened as he felt a jagged pain pierce his the area slightly below his sternum, puncturing the pathways of both lungs and nicking his heart. He coughed weakly, spewing a torrent of blood.

"I guess this is the end Dobe." Sasuke sneered. "You die, alone and hated, and I live, free and more powerful than you could ever be!"

"Y-You're wrong... Y-You could never surpass m-me..." Naruto coughed out. He leaned in and whispered in Sasuke's ear,

"You lack hatred."

As Naruto's vision began to fade to black, he faintly heard Sasuke's scream of rage and a light smile flickered over his face.

The Uzumaki, over the faltering beat of his heart, heard a whisper in his head. **'Kurama...'**

'Hn?'

**'My name is Kurama...' **the fox muttered.

Naruto gave a huge grin inwardly, 'Ha, well it's nice to meet you Kurama, my name's Uzumaki Naruto!'

Deep within Naruto's mindscape, a bittersweet smile formed on an Kurama's face and the nine-tailed fox rubbed his eye. **'Goodbye, Kit. For what it's worth, it's been a ride."**

'Likewise.' Naruto beamed.

And so Naruto Uzumaki left this world, a smile on his face.

* * *

(Hueco Mundo [Hollow World])

Naruto awoke. He raised a hand to rub furiously at bleared eyes and he eyed his new surroundings. It wasn't Konoha, that was for sure. It was more like Suna, if a bit colder and more dreary. The lands was drenched in endless night, the only source of light being a bleached crescent moon looming above him. White, granular sand stretched as far as he could see, marred only by pale, bare trees jutting out randomly in the landscape. He walked over to one and gently touched it. It wasn't made of wood, but rather a quartz-like material. He looked down as he felt a slight twinge of pain on his sternum. His eyes widened.

"W-What the hell is this?!" He cried out. Where his sternum was there was some sort of chain. He tugged on it only for the twinge of pain to increase.

Naruto had begun his short life as a Plus.

* * *

(A Week later...)

Naruto wandered the desert. He had learned a few things during his time in this goddamn dreary desert. The stupid chain, which was now barely a nub, was apparently called the Chain of Fate, and the desert was called Hueco Mundo, or Hollow World, and appropriately, was inhabitated by beasts called Hollows. These beasts differed in size and shape in almost grotesque manners, but they all had two marking characteristics. They all had a bone-like mask over their face and had a hole on their body.

Now, according to a young hollow that he killed (he's a ninja give me some credit), there were four classes. The first, the lowest, were the normal hollows, these guys were the weird ones, ranging from all different shapes and sizes, and generally weak enough to be killed by a well-placed Rasengan. The next groups delved into what were called the Menos, or Minus. The lowest of the Menos were the Gillian, mindless hollows that were all uniform in shape and ability. They were all about the height of the Hokage Monument and most had the same mask, a plain empty-eyed face with a long nose. The few that had different masks quickly evolved into the next stage, Adjuchas. These were normally the size of Gama (the toad that Jiraiya first appeared with, the one with the summoning scroll in his mouth, look it up.), but much, much stronger. These were as strong as a high-jounin to low-kage ninja. He himself had defeated one, but it took copious spamming of Kage Bunshins, and chakra depletion afterwards. Oops, not chakra, reiryoku. Reiryoku was just spiritual energy, not a mixture of physical and spiritual, like chakra. The final class was Vasto Lorde, and hoo boy!, these guys were scary! They stood at human height and most even looked human, if you ignored the creepy masks and the holes. But their power was immense. However, they were rare, thank Kami. The Uzumaki had only seen one, but he was sure that once was quite enough for a long, long time. The base level of power seeping from the monster was enough to send him to his knees when they came anywhere near his general area.

Naruto was broken out of his wondering when he felt an piercing pain arc through his body. It had begun again. He gritted his teeth and willed himself to stay awake and conscious through the whole process. His Chain of Fate had begun to erode once more. Gaping maws began to form on the length of the chain, and it began to rattle wildly. Slowly the chain began to erode away, until it ate itself away completely. The pain abruptly stopped and Naruto sighed with relief. Now that the chain was gone, there would be no more weird episodes of pain, right?

Wrong.

Without any warning, cracks began to spread across his body, intersecting with each other. He screamed as the pain escalated to a whole new level, making Sasuke's chidori feel like a kiss. As the glowing rifts cut deep into his skin and made its ways to his cerulean eyes, where they touched his eyes, the sclera began to spread a pitch black. Abruptly, the glowing cracks on his skin began to decrease in intensity and for one blessed second, there was relief. And then Naruto exploded.

* * *

(Hueco Mundo)

Naruto shook his head to rid himself of his most recent daydream. He sighed and shook his head again wearily, it was unlike him to think back on the past like that. If this god-forsaken desert had taught him anything, it was never to let his guard down, there were too many eager hollows waiting to take a bite out him and steal his power. The former jinchuuriki looked down at his hands. How they had changed. They were no longer the calloused, tan, _human_ hands he once had. No, they had been replaced with clawed talons, pale as the moon.

Naruto's death had been anything but peaceful. Unable to let go of his sorrow and despair, he had remained a Plus, degenerated into a Jibakurei (Earth-Bound Spirit), and overcome by his turmoiling emotions, his body had exploded into a fine mist. He touched his chest lightly, feeling a twinge of pain from the phantom wound.

It was a curious experience, for his conscience to be spread so thinly around his surroundings, perhaps this was what being the wind was like. He almost laughed. But the instance of change was just that, an instant. His body formed again, but in a different form that he remembered. Different but appropriate, because now, the despair inside was matched by his form outside. He struck quite the intimidating figure.

He was near 6 feet, below average by hollow standards, but size was no indication of power here, as those that attacked him soon found out. He cut a willowy figure, and his limbs moved with dangerous grace. He had a pair of pitch black wings that jutted out of his lower back and long ebony hair of the same shade that billowed out of the back of his mask. His hollow hole was located slightly below his sternum, the same spot where years ago Sasuke had marked his death. A thin, whip-like tail swished back and forth behind him.

His mask was perhaps the greatest difference and his most striking feature. It hid a face that Naruto knew was different from the one he once wore, if the obsidian hair was any indication. It was bone white, and from the sides jutted two horns that were not unlike a bat's ears. The mask covered his whole face, save for his eyes. His eyes. They were a bright poisonous emerald, unlike the normal hollow topaz. The sclera though, was pitch black.

He sighed again as he wandered the deserts of Hueco Mundo, alone. Alone, as ever. He was different from his kin, the hollows. He was... strange. He was created, no that wasn't the right word, reborn at the bottom of a pit where no light shone. The darkest Hueco Mundo had to offer. As if pressed together by the darkness, uncertain of what to become, born under dark, dark sentiments, Naruto had a white form. Even in death, he was different. His brethren were robed in pure black, always hungering, always thirsting, they were little more than beasts.

The former Uzumaki clenched his hands, a huge indication of emotion for the now pensive Vasto Lorde. Was Kami mocking him? Even in death, he was different. His form was white, while his brothers were black. His eyes were the brightest green, his kin's a malicious amber. He was intelligent, they were not. Was it so hard to let him fit in? He had a lonely existence.

He walked, roaming the desert. Maybe, just maybe, if he walked far enough, he could see the edge of this world. It was an intriguing thought. Naruto raised his hands to eye-level and stared at them. He felt nothing. It seemed as he died, his emotions died with him. He heard nothing. He wished he could cry, could rage, could vent his emotions. But there were none. So he walked, and walked, searching for an answer.

Then he saw it.

It was a huge white tree speckled with sharp spikes. It drew his eye and he began to gravitate toward it, like a moth to a flame. It was huge and mighty, regal almost. But it too, was alone, in the middle of nowhere. He found it satisfying. It was like him. Naruto approached the tree, ignoring the stabs of pain as the spikes of the tree broke his hierro (Spanish for "iron", Japanese for "steel skin") as if it were nonexistent. He sank his body into the barbed tree, and as he did so, one sharp prong stabbed into his mask, snapping part of it, a small portion near his eye, and ended Naruto's evolution as a hollow. He continued, until he lay inside the trunk of the tree itself, and closed his eyes.

"Uzumaki Naruto is well and truly dead. My name is now Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra Cifer."

* * *

A/N

Alright, that was my first chapter ever written in anything! And to you dear reader, who has probably stumbled across this story by sheer luck or by mis-click, what did you think about it?

The premise of the story is actually a challenge by TheInfamousMan, shoutout to him. It's about Naruto becoming executed by Konoha after the Battle at the Valley of the End (I know I know, clichéd as fuck but what fanfic here isn't a branch off of a cliché?) and becoming Ulquiorra. Of course, Ulquiorra dies too, poor guy can't get a break, and guess what, he gets a break, the spirit king or kami or whatever you wanna make it sends him back to the Elemental Nations three years after his death as Ulquiorra. And you know, the rest of the story is original. Only rules are:

Naruto/Ulquiorra paired with Hinata/Um... Hinata.

Konoha Bashing. (I particularly don't like this, cause I actually like Konoha and I believe that the village slowly accepting Naruto is the perfect example of how he can be leader and make people change, but you know, hopefully I can make this work and perhaps you'll take it in stride too).

Right, Naruto can be any other male character that dies in the whole arrancar arc, as long as they play some important role, like Grimmjow (he doesn't really die though), Gin Ichimaru, Stark, hell even Aizen if you wanna go crazy. But Ulquiorra is preferred and I think it fits Naruto quite nicely (although Gin and his foxy smile could work well too).

WAIT Don't leave yet, just gotta explain some things, cause I know people with ask these, maybe.

_Kyuubi and Naruto: _The two of them have reconciled somewhat, even though they aren't the best of friends. Why does Naruto forgive Kyuubi? Well, he does have nothing to lose and Naruto's not really the person to hold a grudge. Canon shows that when he apologizes to Kyuubi and fistbumps him. Plus, my excuse is that the seal will allow Naruto to hear Kyuubi's thoughts from time to time if Kyuubi's agitated and knowing Kurama, he'll probably be cursing Madara whenever Naruto curses him and Naruto may have heard his thoughts. Which gives him enough excuse to forgive Kurama. (Also, I like Kyuubi).

_The Origin of Ulquiorra's Name:_ There are several theories of what Ulquiorra's name means. There are two main theories that I've seen. One is where he is named after and architect named Patricia Urquiola. Another is a play on the words, "El Que Llora" or "he who cries". Personally, I like the second one better.

Oh, all of the other Espada's as well as the Privaron Espada (Former Espada) and a few minor fraccion are named after famous designers and architects as well. Here's a list, for anyone who actually cares:

Fraccion:

Ilfort Granz - Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort (Umm... Rabbi)

Pesche Guatiche - Gaetano Pesce (Architect and Designer)

Bawabawa - Geoffrey Bawa (Architect)

Tesla Lindocruz - Nikola Tesla (Inventor, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineer) == love this guy, Tesla

Privaron Espada:

Dordonii Alessandro Del Socaccio - Rodolfo Dordoni (Architect)

Gantenbainne Mosqueda - Gantenbainne (Architect)

I'm not sure about Cirucci...

Espada:

1st: Coyote Starrk - Philippe Starck (French Designer)

2nd: Baraggan Louisenbairn - Luis Barragan (Architect)

3rd: Tia Harribel - Harry Bell Measures (Architect)

4th: Ulquiorra Cifer - Patricia Urquiola (Architect) and Father Hubert Schiffer (he was survivor of Hiroshima, Tite Kubo is from Hiroshima)

5th: Nnoitra Gilga - Richard Neutra (Architect) [in Japanese Nnoitra pronounced quickly sounds like Neutra]

6th: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez - Nicholas Grimmshaw (Architect)

Temporary 6th: Luppi Antenor - Italo Lupi - (Architect) [Note: Lucci from One Piece might be named after this guy too, just a hypothesis. I mean, they were both builders... right?]

7th: Zommari Rureaux - Cannot for the life of me find out who this creepy guy is named after...

8th: Szayel-Apollo Granz - Alejandro Zaera Polo (Architect)

9th: Aaroniero Arruruerie - Eero Aarnio (Furniture Designer)

10th: Yammy Llargo - Can't find anything on this guy either... Yum, yams...

OH MY GOD THAT WAS HARD TO WRITE! I sincerely apologize to all the writers of fanfiction out there whose stories I thought were poorly written, especially grammar-wise... This thing is hard as a mother-fucker to write... Especially the last part of the chapter where Naruto doesn't talk at all, cause you know, Ulquiorra isn't exactly the chatty type...

So, you know, don't flame. CONSTRUCTIVE Criticism is always helpful, and any ideas of what I should do next are great too.

Rate, Follow, Review all that good spiel.


	2. Emptiness

Chapter 2: Emptiness

**A/N: Hey Guys I'm back! I'm currently going to put the A/N in the beginning because I don't wanna ruin the mood at the end by putting a really long note here.**

**Note: Oh Shiza! It seems that despite common knowledge, Ulquiorra is not the Espada whose aspect is Despair. It's actually Nnoitra who does that. Ulquiorra is the Espada of Nihilism or more simply, Emptiness. But since I don't feel like rewriting the last chapter, let's make him all pro-despair too. **

**Oh for those who didn't read the really long author note last chapter, Ulquiorra is a play on words for "El Que Llora" or "He who cries" and Cifer is an allusion to Lucifer (explaining Segunda Etapa form and his tendency to stab people in the heart), which I feel is slightly important... and very interesting.**

**Review Responses (I'll put the original review up too, because I always hated when authors put review responses up but didn't put the review so never actually got what the reviewer said.)**

**Guest: (Don't know his name): "**Tsunade or Jiraiya would never betray Naruto you fucking asshole**"**

**A: If you're gonna call me a fucking asshole, you should read the chapter properly, ya douche. I'm pretty sure that Sasuke bragged and explicitly stated that he and several others (read: Danzo) put Tsunade under a genjutsu to control using the sharingan. And Jiraiya didn't even appear because he would've been too pained to see his godson executed. Of course, Naruto/Ulquiorra doesn't know this, so there may be a wee little confrontation. (read: huge fucking battle that destroys half of a forest) Sorry to any other readers who missed it or thought I didn't explain it well *Bows deeply*. At least you didn't insult me though, right?**

**DemonAndAGun: "**His name can also allude to "Lucifer", which also coincides with his Sepugunda Resurreccion and his habit of stabbing people in the heart with his hands, as well as his threat to rip out Orihime's heart. I also agree with the reviewer Snowdoll18, you should deviate from the cliche Naruto/Ulquiorra stories, have him come back as Naruto but with a mixture of their attitude, Ulquiorra's confidence and Naruto's aggressiveness, make him the antihero who crushes his enemy and mocks their weaknesses, make him godlike, one of the worst part about the other stories is Naruto comes back and acts restrained, like he's afraid of them, he's the Quatra Espada, every Kage combined both dead and alive would be no match for him, we've seen his Cero he could destroy the Jubi if he wanted there's no reason for him to come back acting timid. Honestly I think Cifer, Harribel, and Grimmjow as well as Barraggan are basically four entities that could crush Madara like an ant. Their Cero alone is as powerful as a Bijudama, they have Hierro, Bala, Sonido, and the Garganta, I think it's kind of stupid to think that the Ninja of Naruto's world could actually overpower them, especially when you're talking about weaklings like Tsunade, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Danzo, I don't think any of those four could take on ANY of the Espada and even last a few seconds. You should also avoid making this a purely Naru/Hina story, not that there's anything wrong with that particular pairing, but its too overdone, should make it a Naru/Hina and at least a small harem.**"**

**A: You know what man? I love people like you. People who take the time and write a really long and well thought out review that gives me suggestions without cussing me out. Thanks a lot, I really do appreciate it. Where do I start? **

**1. Yeah, I researched that too and found that Cifer is a play on Lucifer. Thanks for telling me that, I was interesting.**

**2. I told this to Snowdoll18 too, but Ulquiorra will NOT become Naruto again. That would defeat the point of the story, which is about how Ulquiorra being in the Elemental Nations would turn out. Sorry. However, Uzumaki Naruto will not disappear. He will reappear quite frequently and will play a big role in developing Ulquiorra's psyche. What this means is that Ulquiorra will receive character traits from Naruto, although he will stay mainly Ulquiorra. He will begin to show emotion more and more as the story progresses. You'll see, I put the first confrontation with Naruto in this chapter anyway. (Hey maybe we'll have Ulquiorra chucking Rasengans about later on? Just a thought.)**

**3. I'm actually not sure how to go with this, I need more suggestions. On one hand, a supercrazystrong Ulquiorra would be awesome, but I feel like that would become sortof boring after about 7 chapters or so. He needs to develop, you know? Current thoughts are that he will be weaker that he is at the peak of the Arrancar Arc, but stronger that most of the characters in Naruto. He will be around low S-class without resureccion, and SS-class with Segunda Etapa. Of course, Reiatsu is a measure of spiritual pressure, so being in a physical body could weaken that spritual power up to half, because the body needs to balance the spiritual and physical power. So his power will be locked away, but slowly released, as his physical body adapts.**

**4. This is the biggest issue here. I am actually a huge fan of NaruHina, but I feel other pairings are fine too. I do want to make this purely NaruHina though, partly due to the rules of the challenge, and partly because of my own reasons. The only real relationship in this story will be NaruHina, but that will be really slow. Ulquiorra won't be pouring his love out anytime soon. He needs to know what emotions are first, for once. He will treat Hinata the same as other women who haven't betrayed Naruto, i.e. Ino, Tenten, Tsunade, Ayame, Anko, etc. He will be partial and affectionate to all as the story progresses, but the only one that will begin to move beyond that is Hinata.**

**5. Man this is long!**

**Blackplant: "**Okay, interesting first chapter. You definitely got my attention with this story. I really hope, he doesn't turn out completely evil but Konoha really needs some major ass kicking. Hope to read more soon :)**"**

**A: Ok, let's keep this one short because of the top review. Konoha will get their asses handed to them on a silver platter, but at first he will use psychological warfare, cause that's what Ulquiorra does best. How? Kidnapping Orihime under Aizen to crush Ichigo's hope (although that backfired), Calling Ichigo trash and leaving him alive with his pride shattered, showing his Segunda Etapa form even though he really didn't need to to crush Ichigo's hopes, etc. But battle will happen, I assure you.**

**Avp369: Your question's have been answered above I hope. If it hasn't just PM me.**

**God-ShadowEx100: "**Blah blah I hate your guts, story sucks, etc etc, fuck etc etc bitch etc etc, oh look I can use curse words like a man etc etc**"**

**A: so that was basically the review. ummmm. No comment. If you hate NaruHina that much, then why did you read this story? It says NaruHina on the summary. I fail to see your logic. To everyone who doesn't like NaruHina either, please give it a try and ignore the pairing as best you can, *bows deeply* (I mean you've all read Team 8 before right? That's NaruHina, but its bearable for those who don't like NaruHina too right?).**

**hornet07. A: Your main questions were to 1. make Ulquiorra OP, 2. explain why Kakashi is bashed and why Tsunade isnt. 3. Please spare Tsunade, Jiraiya and Shizune. Well the answers are 1. Ulquiorra will not be op, I think, unless someone gives me a convincing enough argument. He will still be strong as fuck though. 2. Tsunade is not because I like her. Kakashi is because... well I'm not sure either. Kakashi here will not be like canon, he will be more hateful of the Kyubi for killing his sensei. He will be like the Kakashi in the fanfic hmmm, Chunin Exam Day, I guess (doting on the Uchiha and not caring about Naruto). I'm still not sure how it happened, I didn't plan it that way... I swear! I like Kakashi, but that's how it happened... Maybe I'll give him a merciful death... 3. All of them will be spared. Tsunade and Shizune after breaking the genjutsu, Jiraiya after getting his ass beat.**

**Note2: I personally didn't like this chapter, except until the end. I really hope you do though. Oh, When you get to it, see if you can guess what Ulquiorra's Inner World is.**

**Note 3: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Review! I don't mind favorites and follows, but reviews are my lifeline. I didn't understand either until I released the previous chapter why authors care so much about reviews, but it really warms my heart to see people responding to what I write. I really do appreciate it!**

**Enjoy!**

(200 Years Later - Hueco Mundo)

Naruto's, no, that was no longer his name, the sooner he forgot it the better, Ulquiorra's eyes shot open. There was a danger nearby. Only someone with a reiatsu matching his own could jolt him out of his slumber like that, and it was near. Ulquiorra got up from his resting position in the hollow of the tree and using a well-placed Bala ("Bullet" for both Spanish and Japanese), broke open a hole in the tree. He stepped outside and panned the dreary desert of Hueco Mundo for any odd figures. He tensed as a lone figure sonidoed- no- shunpoed in front of him. Shinigami! What were they doing here? The Soul Reaper raised a hand in greeting.

"I come to talk, Vasto Lorde. Nothing more." the Brown-haired Death God said. Ulquiorra scrutinized him. He seemed none too powerful, and his chestnut eyes seemed to hold nothing but warmth. The Vasto Lorde frowned almost imperceptibly.

"What stops you from slaughtering you right now, little shinigami?" Ulquiorra murmered. He raised one thin finger at the shinigami and began to charge a Cero (Spanish for "Zero", Japanese for "Hollow Flash").

Aizen's ever present smiled widened, but his eyes by contrast seemed to harden. He muttered something unintelligible and grasped his sword threateningly "Because, _little _Vasto Lorde, I can destroy you."

(**Cue Naruto Music -Kakuzu)**

"Such strength... I do not see. That which I do not see, does not exist... Disappear, Cero." Ulquiorra released the pent up energy in the form of wide beam, lighting up the pale sands a bright green.

Aizen smiled, but did not move from his spot. He raised his katana and brought his parallel to his chest vertically and unsheathed it slightly. The Cero met the blade of the Zanpakuto and split into two, a testament to his skill. The remaining parts of the Cero crashed into the sands behind Aizen and send up two large plumes of dust, a testament to his power.

Ulquiorra gave no sign of emotion, but charged a Bala to send at the arrogant shinigami. He set loose Bala after Bala, an endless rain. Even another Vasto Lorde couldn't come out of this unharmed, and this Soul Reaper was no exception. After a valient attempt at dodging the first few, each Bala struck him again and again, sending him deeper into the sands of Hueco Mundo. Ulquiorra stopped the onslaught to survey his prey, or what was left of it. Before he got close, however, a katana shot out of the cloud of dust and impaled itself on Ulquiorra's left shoulder. A glowing golden light connected the hilt of the sword to something inside the dust cloud. Slowly, the haze dissipated to reveal heavily damaged Aizen, his black shihakusho ripped and splattered with blood, with one hand outstretched, holding the other end of the golden rope.

"Bakudo 63: Saju Sabaku (Way of Binding 63: Locking Binding Stripes)" he declared. He manipulated the golden rope of reiatsu and sliced through the hollow's arm, leaving naught but a stump. "Why do you continue this foolishness Hollow? You cannot win."

Ulquiorra winced marginally at the pain of losing his arm, but kept his composure. He gave no answer to the shinigami's question, but charged instead, creating a lance of reiatsu to wield in his only hand. Lance and Sword met in battle, creating a shockwave of energy that decimated anything in its radius. The two separated and charged again. Ulquiorra lashed out with a kick, which Aizen skillfully blocked. Using the momentum of the Vasto Lorde's attack against him, Aizen pushed lightly on the hollow's shoulder to make him lose balance and shunpoed around Ulquiorra, until he was facing his back. Ulquiorra cursed inwardly and he dispelled the lance, choosing instead send the remaining reiatsu to his back to enforce his Hierro. The katana stopped in its arc, meeting the steel skin of the Hollow. Ulquiorra took the chance to sonido away, and quickly charged a Cero. The beam of deadly green reiatsu rushed toward Aizen, who, still smiling, raised one hand.

"Bakudo 81: Danku (Way of Binding: Splitting Void)." A transparent barrier erected in front of Aizen and the Cero crashed into it. The Danku creaked, bent, and splintered, but it held the brunt of Ulquiorra's attack. But the Cero was not the main attack. Summoning another reiatsu lance, Ulquiorra sonidoed around the Danku in an attempt to strike the infuriating man. The Soul Reaper quickly turned around to block the blade, but not before the lance made a deep gash in the man's forehead. Using his small window of chance, Ulquiorra summoned a lance using his whip-like tail and crashed it into Aizen, intent on bifurcating the Shinigami. Aizen however, in a stroke of brilliance, raised the sheath of his Zanpakuto to block the second strike. "Hollow, do you not see our difference in power?"

"No, I do not. What I see... is your death." Ulquiorra gave a rare smirk and he raised the stump of his arm. With a ripping sound, the bones of his lost arm burst out of the stump and quickly covered itself and muscle and sinew. Arm restored, Ulquiorra concentrated Cero on the tip of his new arm. Aizen's smile disappeared.

**BOOM!**

An explosion rocked the sands of Hueco Mundo, engulfing Aizen in a fiery light. Ulquiorra stumbled out of the cloud, gripping his burnt and now-useless arm. Even he had not escaped the explosion unscathed, but at least now the annoying shinigami was gone. However, the Vasto Lorde did not let down his guard. That was foolish. His misgivings were proven correct as twin bursts of blue flame burst out of the cloud of dust. Aizen stumbled out, clutching his right arm, which had had to endure the brunt of the attack and was now nothing more than a charred mess. His glasses had cracked, the left lens completely shattered. Aizen hissed in pain as he cut off his ruined arm right above the burns, hastily muttering a Hado Sanjuuichi: Shakkaho (Way of Destruction 31: Red Flame Cannon) to cauterize the wounds. Just as he finished, Ulquiorra charged in, wielding his reiatsu lance to try to score a hit on the shinigami. Aizen twisted with almost inhuman speed and managed to avoid a serious hit, though the lance managed to graze him and cause a slight cut. He grunted in pain. "You are strong, hollow. You remind me of myself. You, like I, have reached the pinnacle of perfection. You cannot grow stronger as a hollow. I cannot grow stronger as a shinigami. Join me, hollow. I will break the bonds between shinigami and hollow! Together, we will achieve power beyond the two and will completely separate the vulgar existence as mere hollow and shinigami. We will become transcendent! What say you hollow? Will you join me?"

Ulquiorra stared at the shinigami impassively. "Sorry, what did you say?" He slammed a clawed hand against Aizen's blade which had come up in a hasty block. "I have no need for pitiful failure such as yourself."

Aizen roared with anger and crashed his sword repeatedly against the hierro of the hollow. Each time the blade made contact, it skittered off in a shower of sparks as the Vasto Lorde's hierro stopped the Zanpakuto from causing any lasting harm. Still, Aizen's sword never slowed and little by little, small cuts began to form on Ulquiorra's skin. Ulquiorra's patience was beginning to run thin. He had had enough of the blabbering shinigami. He rushed forward and palmed the whole of Aizen's face in his hand. Jumping off of the sand and sonidoing forward to gather speed and momentum, Ulquiorra slammed Aizen into the trunk of one of the dead, pale trees of Hueco Mundo. Ulquiorra smirked inwardly at the satisfying crunch he heard as the arrogant shinigami's skull impacted with the hard quartz of Hueco Mundo's trees. However, the light in those eyes had not gone out just yet. Hate-filled murky brown eyes glared at Ulquiorra's expressionless verdant green. He would enjoy putting the light out of those eyes. Aizen cried out in pain as the Vasto Lorde increased the pressure on Aizen's skull, threatening to burst it like a overripe melon. Deciding for once to be merciful, Ulquiorra charged a black cero to give the shinigami a quick end. "Cero Oscuras (Spanish for "Dark Zero" Japanese for "Black Hollow Flash")."

The sands of Hueco Mundo were lit up with a dark light (I'm not sure how a black cero would give off light, but just go with the flow) and a scream of pain echoed across the vastness of the desert. The black cero engulfed the forms of both Ulquiorra and Aizen, one's eyes filled with fear and the other's unemotional. An explosion rocked Hueco Mundo as black reiatsu exploded outwards, spreading so far out across the desert that the last vestiges of it disappeared over the dark horizon. A giant crater was carved out by the power of the blast, and the surrounding sands became a clear glass marred with intersecting cracks.

Ulquiorra stumbled out of the cloud, his condition even worse than before. His arm was as burnt as Aizen's was, completely unrecognizable and certainly unusable. As the dust dispersed, Ulquiorra found that the only remains of the shinigami were his burnt shihakusho and his Zanpakuto, which was stabbed into the ground.

Ulquiorra frowned, something was off here. He did not remember the brown-haired man stabbing his sword into the sands.

"Kudakero, Kyoka Suigetsu (Shatter, Mirror Flower, Water Moon)."

Ulquiorra's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the image of the sword imbedded in the ground shatter and disappear. He whirled around to see if anyone was there and was met by the said blade plunging into his chest. A completely unarmed Aizen smiled at him.

"Hmmm? What happened to that confidence? Come now, I expected more, little Hollow." he smirked at Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra suddenly gasped and fell to his knees as a inexplicable weight bore on his shoulders, threatening to crush him. He gasped, trying to fill his suddenly empty lungs, and tried to raise his head to stare at the shinigami, who seemed much more lethal than he had thought.

Aizen ran a finger down the length of his blade, reddening his finger with blood. "Kyoka Suigetsu. Pretty name don't you think? It's ability is Kanzen Saimin (Complete Hypnosis). Think back, little hollow. Can you remember when it was this battle was lost?"

Ulquiorra's eyes widened.

0o0o0

_"What stops you from slaughtering you right now, little shinigami?" Ulquiorra murmured. He raised one thin finger at the shinigami and began to charge a __Cero (Spanish for "Zero", Japanese for "Hollow Flash")__. _

_Aizen's ever present smiled widened, but his eyes by contrast seemed to harden. He muttered something unintelligible and grasped his sword threateningly._

0o0o0

"It was when I threatened to kill you."

Aizen's warm smile vanished and his eyes turned cold and dangerous. "Correct. This battle is over. There is no doubt of my power now Hollow. I came to request you to join my army, but I have no need for pitiful failures such as yourself." Aizen threw Ulquiorra's words back at his as he turned away from the defeated Ulquiorra and turned his back, restricting his immense spiritual pressure so that the hollow could breathe. Ulquiorra stood up, and for the first time since his rebirth, he felt emotion. Anger.

He sonidoed in front of Aizen and pointed one finger at the Soul Reaper, "Do not underestimate me, shinigami. I am far from a failure. I will follow you for now, but mark my words, one day I will drag you from your throne."

Aizen raised his hand to his face and laughed uproariously. He unleashed the brunt of his Reiatsu and sent Ulquiorra to his knees again. "AHAHAHAHA! You'll do well, young hollow, well indeed. Few have the courage or stupidity to stand against me." He cupped Ulquiorra's chin and traced a finger down the length of Ulquiorra's cracked mask. "It seems you've already taking a step to becoming an Arrancar. Very well, I will allow you to join me. I am Aizen-sama. Sosuke Aizen. Come then, together we will meet others like yourself."

Ulquiorra stood up and followed Aizen into the vastness of the Desert. It seemed that he had found a purpose again, with a strong leader. He would meet others like him, as powerful as him, as lonely as him. Perhaps life was not so empty after all.

0o0o0

(Hueco Mundo - Las Noches)

(Approximately 50 Years after the Vizards' Excommunication)

"AAAAA**AAAA**HHHHHHR**RRRGGGH**HH!"

Ulquiorra writhed on the ground, screaming with pain, his outcry transitioning between a human's voice and the dual-tones of a hollow as the natural barrier between shinigami and hollow was forcibly broken. He screamed as his mask, the part of him that hid his face from the world, that kept him apart from it, was ripped away from him. Aizen stood over him, his stoic face giving nothing away, constantly pumping his shinigami reiatsu into Ulquiorra's twitching body. Ulquiorra let out one last cry of pain, before the reiatsu pumped into him took hold and finished his transformation. He panted heavily on his hands and knees, and cursed at Aizen quietly. Aizen only smiled and offered his hand.

"Rise, my servant. You will be the fourth sword. How do you feel?" Ulquiorra stood up unassisted, ignoring the hand of Aizen, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the surrounding arrancars. "Harribel, a mirror."

The Blonde Arrancar arrived with a flat piece of iron, polished until it shone. Aizen nodded towards the newly made arrancar and she handed the make-shift mirror to him. Ulquiorra stared, his frigid eyes giving nothing away. "I... am different."

And so he was.

He stood now at a rather puny 5'6. His long ebony hair had shortened to the length of his shoulders. What was left of his mask was merely a small fragment to the left of his face, acting as a sort-of broken helmet of sorts. His eyes had not changed, that was for sure. They were still the cold, emotionless green that had stared out from behind his mask. He smiled slightly, it was fitting. He looked like what he should be. The Cuarto Espada. The Fourth Sword. The Epitome of Emptiness. But more importantly, there was no trace of Uzumaki Naruto. It pleased him.

Aizen stepped forward once more, and handed him a katana not unlike his own, save for the difference of the pommel and color of the hilt. "This is your Zanpakuto, Ulquiorra. A manifestation of your soul, and the embodiment of your Hollow powers. Take it, it is up to you to find its name." Aizen waved his hands, and the watching crowd of arrancars dispersed. Ulquiorra hesitated, then took the katana and the world went black.

0o0o0

(Ulquiorra's Inner World)

Ulquiorra opened his eyes and looked around at what was his inner world. He was in a huge crater that stretched for miles outward. Around him was nothing but a barren wasteland, with nothing but the remained of razed buildings. The sky was a constant night, not unlike the one in Hueco Mundo, except that here, the moon was tinged green. He panned the world again. Nothing, Emptiness. No wait, what was that? He turned to see a familiar building. There, far in the outskirts of the crater, standing unharmed in what was obviously a destructive attack, was a small stand. Hastily lettered across the flaps were the words "Ichiraku Ramen". He sonidoed toward the stand and ducked underneath the flaps to find it empty. The only thing waiting for him was a bowl of ramen, still steaming, as if it had been waiting for him. A bowl of Miso Ramen. Ulquiorra turned away from the stand, closing his eyes as if the scene hurt him. Then he whipped around and backhanded the bowl of ramen. It shattered against the wall and left a splattered stain on the grains of wood. He ran outside and quickly fired a cero. The stand exploded in a shower of wood and burning fabric. Ulquiorra stood looking at the scene, panting, eyes wide with uncharacteristic emotion. He turned around, unable to bear the sight. And was met with another god-forsaken memory.

In front of him was a mountainside, one with five different faces carved onto it. Each one held, or used to hold a great significance to him. Each one was his idol, and the last was a mother figure. The last one had betrayed him. He couldn't stand it. Screaming in uncharacteristic anger, Ulquiorra fired cero after cero at the thrice-damned Hokage Monument, hoping upon hope that his anger would erase the mountainside from his inner world, so he wouldn't have to look at the reminder of his past life.

After what felt like an hour, Ulquiorra forced his panting self back into the cold emotionless mask he usually wore. He stilled his thundering heartbeat and took a deep breath. But he still wasn't satisfied. No, for in front of him, completely unmarred by his onslaught, stood the Hokage Monument. He could swear that the Godaime's face was smirking down at him.

"It won't break, you know. It won't disappear either."

Ulquiorra whirled around to find... himself. Or at least his hollow self. But no. His hollow self and the figure before him bore similarities, but they had a few differences, however subtle. The figure stood at around the same height as himself, who had shrunk since becoming an arrancar. The eyes staring out at him behind the mask were an electric blue, full of light and mirth, much to his displeasure, and the long hair that flowed out from beneath the mask was blonde, not the black that Ulquiorra remembered. The figure laughed,

"What? Cat got your tongue? Or more specifically, Fox got your tongue?"

Ulquiorra hissed, "Who are you?"

**(Cue Music - Kokuten or Beautiful Green Wild Beast)**

The figure did not deign to give him a response, and laughed some more. "Isn't it obvious?" The figure raised his hands to his mask and snapped it off. As he did so, a bright, blue light enveloped his figure. The bone-like material of the hollow disappeared, replacing itself with tanned human skin, which was then covered by a orange and black jumpsuit. The mask dissipated as flakes of reishi, and the long blond hair shortened until it stood up as spikes under a familiar metal headband. As the light dissipated, there stood one very familiar shinobi.

"Yo! Remember me... 'ttebayo?"

0o0o0

Aizen lay on his throne in Las Noches, fascinated at the transformations of one Ulquiorra. He had never seen such a thing before, it was a unique phenomenon. Before him, on the floor, Ulquiorra twitched and cried out, not unlike during his transformation to an Arrancar. But that was not what caught Aizen's eye. No, it was the changes in Ulquiorra's flesh.

Aizen watched as Ulquiorra's raven hair was tinged blonde and shortened into spiky bangs, then returned to their original state. He watched as Ulquiorra writhed and upon his cheeks, six marking like whiskers were slowly engraved on his flesh. Then they too disappeared. He watched as Ulquiorra's bone-white cloak became orange, an unsightly color, then regained its original pallor. He watched as the symbol for a leaf with a spiral in it was engraved into Ulquiorra's mask, and disappeared as white substance covered it up. Most of all, he watched as Ulquiorra's hole, his hollow hole, the symbol of his emptiness and lack of heart, fluctuated wildly in size. It shrunk until it was nearly inexistent, and grew until covered a third of his chest.

Aizen smiled, "Ulquiorra... You are an interesting one. Unpredictable, if anything."

0o0o0

Ulquiorra stared impassively at his old self. Naruto stared back, but then broke into a wide grin. "Come on! Haven't you missed me?"

He gestured behind him, "Let's talk about this back at Ichiraku's!" Ulquiorra's eyes widened as he saw the stand that he had destroyed was back to how it was, as if the attack had never happened. Naruto snickered, "It won't break. It's like the Hokage Monument." he said, gesturing to the carved mountainside, "No, that's not right. It's more like you won't let it be destroyed. Part of you still has some fond memories of this place and wants to keep it the way it is. That part is me!" Naruto smiled.

Ulquiorra frowned right back. "Impossible, I threw those old memories away. I have no lingering attachments. You no longer exist, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto's smile only widened, "You can see me right? Then by your logic, since you can see me, I must exist. See?" Ulquiorra didn't answer. Naruto scowled and jammed his hands into his pockets. "Damnit" he muttered, "Who knew that I would grow to have such a big stick up my ass... 'ttebayo."

Ulquiorra had had enough. The memory was painful enough as it was, and the verbal tic only made it worse. It was time to get rid of it before it made any lasting damage on his psyche. He flew forward, grasping Naruto throat hand slamming him against the rough dirt of the wasteland that was his Inner World. "Enough. I came only to find the name of my Zanpakuto. I have no need for your drabble." He drew the katana from its sheath and placed it on the throat of Naruto. "Answer."

Naruto frowned, "Is this how it's going to be?" He dissolved into flakes of reishi and reformed in front of Ulquiorra. He held out his hand and on it formed a familiar Katana, only that the blade was black and the hilt was a dark orange, the antithesis of his own zanpakuto. Naruto smiled, "Ooh, Orange. What a great color."

Ulquiorra gave him no time to marvel over the sword's color, rushing forward to swing his sword. Naruto quickly backstepped and clashed his own sword against Ulquiorra's. "Yare yare, so impatient." He lifted his free hand and charged an orange ball of light. "Cero."

The blast of reiatsu enveloped Ulquiorra, who sonidoed away. He looked down to see if there was any lasting damage. Fortunately, there were only minor burns. He rushed at Naruto, firing a Bala as he went. He raised his sword in what appeared to be a downward slash, but a twist of his wrist caused the blade to flicker into a side cut. Naruto barely got his own sword down to parry. "How did you learn Cero?"

Naruto grunted with the effort of keeping Ulquiorra's blade from pushing through his own and maiming him. He gave a strained smirk, "Isn't it obvious? The same time you did."

Ulquiorra backpedaled as Naruto began his own attack. Thrust. Side cut. Overhand. Backhand side. Naruto sonidoed behind Ulquiorra in an attempt to stab, but Ulquiorra twisted around to an almost inhuman degree and managed to get away with only a grazing cut.

Naruto grinned. "First hit goes to me~." Suddenly, the smile vanished and Naruto's reiatsu rocketed matching Ulquiorra at his highest. "Stop denying it. You can't let go of Konoha so easily like that. You have too many memories, too many experiences!" he cried out.

Ulquiorra hissed and charged at Naruto, intent on silencing the blond. Overhead. Cross Parry. Overhead Backhand. Underhand. Backhand Side. Each stroke of his sword clanged with Naruto's own, ringing out with a perfect pitch. "Memories?" he growled uncharacteristically, his usually emotionless face twisted with sorrow and anger. "What memories? What experiences? The ones where we were scorned? The ones where we were kicked out the orphanage?! The ones where we were betrayed by our teammates?! The ones where WE WERE MURDERED!?"

"No. The ones with our friends. The ones with Hinata." Naruto whispered. He set his lines in a sharp line. "And if you can't see how foolish you're acting, I'll have to make you remember." He pushed away from Ulquiorra and pointed his Zanpakuto at the Arrancar. "Tozase, ▅▅▅▅▅." No matter how Ulquiorra strained his ears, the name of the Zanpakuto escaped him. Orange reiatsu erupted around the frame of Naruto, enveloping him. The reiatsu hardened into a black robe, the exact opposite hue of the pale white of normal Hollows. The reiatsu gathered around his head and solidified into a broken mask no unlike Ulquiorra's own, except that the fragment had expanded until it fit over the whole of Naruto's head. Naruto sighed and raised a finger towards Ulquiorra, gesturing in what was obviously a come-at-me gesture. Ulquiorra complied.

Ulquiorra formed a lance of reiatsu on his hand and hurled it at his counterpart. Naruto swiftly dodged the attack and casually continued his walk towards the Espada. Both sped up their walk toward the other and katana met clawed hand in the middle of the crater. Naruto's face screwed up in frustration and he cried out, "Why do you continue this foolishness! You're me, don't you feel any remorse? Can't you remember the love that Hinata gave to use? She gave us her heart! Can't you feel anything?"

Ulquiorra's eyes grew dark and became the cold, dispassionate orbs they once were. "I am not you. You... are me." He raised his blade to strike at the clawed hand of Naruto again and let out a kick at the blonde's kidney. Naruto quickly moved his free hand and grabbed the arrancar's leg. His elongated nails drew blood, but Ulquiorra gave no indication of pain. "I have forgotten that girl, just as she forsook me. Where was she when we were executed? She made no attempt to save us." Ulquiorra stepped backwards and charged a cero, one that was black and tinged green on the edges. "What is a heart? You talk as if it is important, but if such a thing exists, show me, Naruto. Show me this object, this precious object that that women entrusted. The object that failed to save us when we needed saving. A heart. Such a thing... does not exist." The Cero Oscuras rocketed toward Naruto who let out one of his own to match it. Black tinged green met black tinged orange and the resulting explosion caused both combatants to fly backwards. Ulquiorra's eyes gave nothing away as he scanned his environment for any signs of movement. "I feel nothing." he stated impassively.

There was a burst of light from within the smoke and Naruto flew out from it, and before Ulquiorra could react, he jammed his claws into the Espada's hollow hole, enlarging it and ripping it. Ulquiorra's eyes widened marginally and his mouth opened in surprise. He gaze down to see Naruto glaring up at him, tears running down his face. Those tears were not clear like normal, but thick and a dark orange, marking a fiery path down his whiskered cheeks. "Damn it, Naruto. Why? All I wanted was for you to realize that hope is not lost. Why do you fight so hard to deny it?" he muttered, his voice cracking

Ulquiorra stared detachedly at the broken form of Naruto, the broken form of a part of his own soul. "My name is not Naruto. It is Ulquiorra." He gently removed the hand piercing him and coughed a glob of blood.

The piece of Ulquiorra's soul that embodied Naruto sighed sorrowfully. "So that's it. It's hopeless. You're too far gone..." Naruto bowed his head, his bangs shadowing his tormented eyes. He sighed again, the epitome of defeat. Ulquiorra spared him one more glance before he turned away. The Arrancar jumped as he heard a yell of defiance. "... is what I'd say, if I were an asshole like you!" The Espada breathed out heavily in exasperation and turned to find Naruto pointing at him defiantly. "I'm not giving up on you yet! I'll find a way to get you to see sense. This isn't over!" Naruto pulled down an eyelid and stuck out his tongue, a completely unfitting action for the tense atmosphere. If Ulquiorra could sweatdrop, he would've.

Naruto rushed at Ulquiorra, but before Ulquiorra could act, he exploded in a cloud of reishi that surrounded the arrancar. The cloud quickly spun in a funnel shape and shot itself into Ulquiorra's hollow hole. The Espada's eyes widened and he clutched his hole. In his mind, he faintly heard an amused voice say, _A parting gift._ Ulquiorra fell to his knees as a torrent of emotions enveloped him. Glimpses of his past flashed through his mind and foreign emotions were forcibly thrust into his cold heart (I know hollows don't have hearts, bear with me, it's a metaphor). He remembered Gaara's bewildered expression as he held a hand out in companionship and felt compassion. He remembered the dying expressions of Haku and Zabuza and felt sorrow. He remembered his speech towards Neji as the white-eyed boy lay down in defeat and felt triumph. Finally, he remembered sitting in that cold, dark cell, looking into the eyes of his beloved, and he felt... love. He felt tears flow out from his cold, frigid eyes, staining his porcelain skin a poisonous green. Ulquiorra screamed one final time and was violently forced out of his Inner World.

Note: End Music.

0o0o0

Aizen leaned forward in quiet anticipation as Ulquiorra's wails cut off suddenly. The Cuarto Espada stood up and Aizen was surprised to see twin trails of green running down Ulquiorra's cheeks, not unlike tears, and that Ulquiorra's pitch black hair was tinged slightly with yellow. Aizen got up from his throne and approached the newborn Arrancar. He held out a hand, both to assist him and to signify an offered companionship. "How do you feel, Ulquiorra."

To Aizen's surprise, Ulquiorra took his hand and stood up. He gave a slight eye-smile, one that was small, almost imperceptible, but one that Aizen caught. "I am well... Aizen-Sama." Aizen's eyes widened in surprise, but then softened back into a deep, warm brown (the warm eyes of the fake Aizen with glasses).

"Come then, my servant. We have much to do."

"Yes, Aizen-Sama"

0o0o0

Many years had passed since that day. Ulquiorra had always served as Aizen's right hand man after that. It was natural after all. He was the most level-headed of all of the Espada. Certainly the most reliable. Starrk was just too lazy, Barragan was too old and arrogant, Harribel was the next best in terms of sanity but always put the safety of her fraccion over her duty for Aizen-sama, Nnoitra was simply too insane, Grimmjow was too prideful and ambitious, and the rest of them were just plain creepy. No, he was the best for the job, there was no doubt about it. And after that day, he had done all of the dirty work. It was he that was responsible for sending Grand Fisher into the World of the Living to wreak havoc fifteen years ago. It was a shame he only managed to kill a single woman. It was he who had gathered the Gillian and opened a Garganta in the Soul Society to allow the escape of Aizen, Gin and Tosen. And even now, It was he who was sent into the Karakura town for grunt work. But Ulquiorra did not complain.

Ulquiorra lay on his bed with a hand over his eyes. It had been a long day. Aizen-sama was beginnning to show his hand. He had been relatively quiet after escaping Soul Society, concentrating on using the Hogyoku (Crumbling Orb) to hasten the process of turning hollows into arrancar. Of course, with the Hogyoku's more efficient power, more powerful arrancars were formed and the ranking of the Espada began to change. Harribel moved and replace Nelliel, who had disappeared, and Dordoni and Cirucci were put into a different class called Privaron Espada, or Deprived Swords. They were thrown away when they were seen as too weak to maintain their position. It would have been a bit sad to see them get demoted but Ulquiorra gave no outward sign of sympathy. For all intents and purposes, Ulquiorra was about as helpful as a stone wall. Ever since his trip into the Inner World, Ulquiorra locked his emotions in tighter than ever. Locked in, but not gone. He was determined to keep them safe, away from prying eyes, and so, knowing no other way, had returned to the cool unemotional facade that he had always maintained. But today, that mask had almost cracked and he had almost let everyone see the white hot anger boiling inside him. All because of one Kurosaki Ichigo.

Ulquiorra sighed and rolled over on the bed, until he was lying on his stomach. If anyone came in, it would have been a comical sight. Aizen-sama had sent him and Yammy to the World of the Living to test the capabilities and execute any potential threats to his empire, which meant any human capable of using or feeling reiatsu, but Aizen-sama had also specifically pointed out Kurosaki Ichigo and had requested that Ulquiorra survey him closely. Ulquiorra obeyed.

0o0o0

_The Garganta opened and Ulquiorra stepped through into the World of the Living. He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath of the life-filled air. How long had it been? He looked at his surroundings. The world had certainly changed since he had last seen it. Next to him Yammy cursed loudly as the lumbering brute tripped while getting out of the Garganta. It would have been perfect, if it wasn't for that fool. It didn't matter for him that he could stand thousands of feet above the air. No, the idiot still managed to trip over his own feet. _

"_Are you ready Yammy?" Ulquiorra asked quietly, still breathing in the air of the Living World calmly and evenly. Yammy gave no response save for cackling maniacally and diving down into what seemed like a park. Ulquiorra sighed and followed._

_The two crashed into the ground, creating a relatively small crater. As the dust dispersed, Ulquiorra could see humans gathered around the lip of the crater, no doubt wondering what had caused it, as normal humans could not see things from the spiritual world. Ulquiorra waved. They didn't respond._

_Yammy growled at the gathering crowd, "What the hell are you looking at?" He shook his fist threateningly at the humans, who looked right past him and muttered to each other about the huge hole in the ground. "Hey! Look at me when I'm yelling at you, you stupid maggots!"_

_Ulquiorra sighed and face-palmed himself. Even now, Yammy's stupidity still amazed him. "They can't see you, you idiot." He deadpanned._

_Yammy paid him no mind. "Alright you fleshbags, you asked for it, ignoring me like that! __Gonzui (Soul Inhalation)!__" Yammy exhaled deeply and arched his body forward, then he arched backward and inhaled deeply, jutting out his stomach. As he did so, the little reiatsu that the humans had were sucked into Yammy's waiting gullet, leaving them as nothing but empty shells. Yammy belched and grimaced, "Bah! Tasted Horrible!" He spat on the ground._

_Ulquiorra stared at Yammy incredulously before donning his cold, impartial mask again. "What do you expect?" he said, gesturing at the downed crowd of bodies, "They are trash, every last bit of them." Now Ulquiorra bore the humans no grudge. He felt nothing for them. He had come to terms with it long ago. After all, although humans were a pitiful race, there were some that deserved compassion. They were merely below him, that was all. They were… trash._

_Ulquiorra turned his gaze when he heard a soft groan over near the woods. It was a little, human girl, struggling to stand after the effects of the Gonzui. He raised an eyebrow in surprise. Ho, impressive. There were few that could stand the effects of Yammy's Gonzui, weak as it was. Unfortunately, Yammy seemed to have noticed the girl as well._

"_Ahaha, what do we have here! Hey, look Ulquiorra, it's a survivor!" He turned and leered at the barely conscious girl, "Hey you! You must have some spiritual pressure to be able to survive my Gonzui. You're Kurosaki Ichigo aren't you?" The girl gave no answer. How could she, she was barely clinging to consciousness. "Hey, Ulquiorra! Is this one of them?!"_

_Why did he even bother. "Look closely. She's barely alive after your Gonzui, and she's barely able to breath just from being close to your Reiatsu, you blundering idiot. She's trash, just like the rest of them. Leave her, there are more important things to do."_

_Yammy scowled at the insult, but his short attention span quickly turned him to the girl in front of him. "Hey, it looks like your not Kurosaki Ichigo. Who knew?" He raised a foot to stomp on her. "Sayonara, sucker."_

_WHOOSH! _

_Just as Yammy was about to move his foot, a blur of black and red moved under it, preventing it from moving and crushing the girl. It was a boy this time. Interestingly enough, his arm was not like a human arm, but was black with a red stripe moving down the length of it. It was vaguely… Hollow. How interesting. Behind the boy, an orange haired woman quickly ushered the incapacitated girl to safety. Ho, another one. This one would bear watching as well._

0o0o0

Ulquiorra was broken out of his daydream when there was a soft knock on his door. "Ulquiorra-sama, Aizen-sama requests you presence. All of the other Espadas are already down there. He yawned and got up from his bed and opened the door to see a blonde female arrancar looking down at the ground fearfully. He strode purposefully from the doorway, careful not to brush past her too roughly. Just as he turned a corner, he turned and made eye contact with the quivering arrancar. "Thank you for informing me." He deadpanned before turning the corner and sonidoing toward Aizen's throne room. The Arrancar's eyes widened and she frowned. It was unlike Ulquiorra-sama to be so polite as to thank her. Something good must've happened. And with Ulquiorra-sama's twisted sense of humor, if he even had a sense of humor, it was bound to be bad.

Ulquiorra let himself into the throne room of Las Noches and bowed to Aizen-sama. He glanced over to his right and nodded a greeting at Starrk and Harribel. He ignored the others, better not to get familiar with the mentally unstable ones.

"You are late." Aizen intoned.

"I apologize, Aizen-sama. I… got lost on the road of life." Ulquiorra deadpanned. All the Espada sweat-dropped, except for Gin, who nodded as if it happened all the time.

Aizen smiled, as if it amused him. "Now, Let us hear your report." He leaned in from his throne in anticipation. "Show us all that you saw in the World of the Living.

"I and Yammy visited the World of the Living as per your orders. We did find Kurosaki Ichigo, but he was a failure. Not even worth your time my lord. The stories of his potential are greatly exaggerated." Ulquiorra raised a hand to his face and without even winced, pulled his eye right out of his socket. Without remorse he crushed it into a fine powder. Said powder hung in the air as a cloud of dust and began to move around to each of the arrancars in the room, both the Espada and their fraccion, emptying Ulquiorra's memories into their own minds.

0o0o0

**(Cue Music - Bleach - Invasion. [Just for a little bit])**

_Ulquiorra watched as Yammy's attack was blocked by the orange-haired woman's shield. He raised an eyebrow, it seemed like Karakura Town was full of enigmas. The woman was cleary outmatched and outnumbered, but she still held the fire of determination in her eyes. It had been a long time since he had seen eyes such as hers. It angered him. Such foolish hope._

_He watched as she chanted a spell and two… things… escaped from her hairpin and encircled the big one's arm, healing it. No, that wasn't it. What she was doing wasn't healing. Healing either involved the resoration of reiatsu that would speed up the body's natural healing process or restoration of the body's physical injury itself, both of which would leave some sort of scar, especially after Yammy's attack. No, what she was doing was some sort of manipulation of time. Either time or space. Intriguing. _

_But for all her mysteries, it seemed that the girl had no physical strength and no worth in offensive capabilities. Yammy quickly disposed of her projectile attack and leered down at her. "Hey Ulquiorra, should we bring her back to Aizen to show him her healing power?" _

"_No, there will be no need. We came only to survey Kurosaki Ichigo. We have no need of her. Kill her, she is trash." Ulquiorra ordered emotionlessly. Better show her mercy and kill her now before Aizen-sama unleashed his plan upon the World of the Living. _

_Yammy grinned, "Gotcha." He raised a hand to squish her like he would a bug, but was interrupted by a giant cleaver blocking his path. He grunted and looked over his hand at this new obstacle. It was a young boy in a Shinigami shihakusho, with hair the same hue as the one with the strange powers. He had the same eyes too, full of determination and will, even more so actually, because it was lacking the fear and worry that the girl had. Ulquiorra clenched his fist silently. Those eyes. He had those same eyes once upon a time, full of unbreakable will. And he had remained unbending until his death. Those eyes were the eyes of fools and martyrs. He hated those eyes. _

"_Sorry Inoue. Did you wait long?" the shinigami turned his gaze onto the carrot-haired woman. "Don't worry, I'll beat both of these guys…" He turned back and glared at Yammy. He placed a hand on his forearm, as if to reinforce his grip. "…and I'll all be over! Bankai!" he cried._

_Blue reiatsu erupted around him, sending the girl called Inoue stumbling backwards. Ulquiorra's expression did not change, but he felt a slight disappointment in the boy. Even with Bankai, his reiatsu barely matched up to his regular, Arrancar form, much less his Resurreccion. Beat him? The boy probably wouldn't even be able to scratch him. Such foolish hope. Such foolish pride. The burst of reiatsu dispersed and showed the shinigami clutched a thin, pitch black katana. Yammy whistled. "Oh! Is this the guy Ulquiorra?" he asked._

"_Orange hair. Black Zanpakuto. No doubt about it Yammy, this is him." Ulquiorra said. He maintained a disinterested gaze at the substitute shinigami, but his mind was racing. This boy's reiatsu, once entering bankai, became different. It turned wild and dangerous, almost feral. It fluctuated wildly, as if he was trying to keep something from escaping and was failing slowly, little by little. Of course, his current reiatsu couldn't hope to match Aizen, if that was what Aizen-sama was fearing. He relaxed inwardly, uncontrollable reiatsu or not, the boy was no threat. He stayed where he was however. Kurosaki would be a good match-up against Yammy. He, Ulquiorra would gauge Kurosaki's full strength and his potential._

_Said shinigami glance back at his defeated friend, the one with the hollow-like arm. "Were you the one who did that to Chad's arm?" he scowled._

_Yammy grinned back, "And what if I did?"_

_Kurosaki glared and jumped over Yammy, his sword a blur as he swung at some unknown target. He landed gracefully and glared back the Tenth Espada. Yammy's right arm hit the ground shortly after. _

"_Aaaarrrrghhh! You son of a bitch!" Yammy yelled. "No more Mister Nice Yammy!" He grasped his Zanpakuto with his remaining left arm and began to concentrate his spiritual pressure. _

_Ulquiorra sighed and face-palmed. He found himself doing that more and more often as of late. Bah, must've been Naruto's remaining emotions. "Are you really releasing your Zanpakuto against such trash?" he asked. Kurosaki's widening eyes did not go unnoticed by him. It seemed that he had not been informed of the existence of arrancars yet. Good, the more ignorant he was the better. He frowned though as suddenly, the substitute shinigami tensed as if in pain and grasped his face. His reiatsu began to fluctuate more wildly, exchanging between a cool, tempered feeling to a wild, feral one. Ulquiorra frowned. The boy was getting more and more disappointing the more he watched._

0o0o0

Aizen leaned back on his throne "I see, so that's why you decided he wasn't worth killing."

Ulquiorra closed the projection, and the cloud of dust returned and entered Ulquiorra's eyelid. He raised his hand to said eye and sent a burst of reiatsu to hasten the healing process. He faced Aizen to finish his report. "As you can see, Kurosaki Ichigo is nothing. If he is left alon-"

"That's stupid!" Grimmjow yelled loudly, interrupting Ulquiorra's report. "Bah, if it were me, I would have killed the bastard!"

Ulquiorra glanced back at his least favorite Espada dispassionately. "Grimmjow."

"It doesn't matter what logic you use. If the words 'kill' appear in the orders, you just go ahead the kill the fucker!" he crowed.

"I agree." One of Grimmjow's fraccion spoke up behind him. "He may be unworthy but he is our enemy. There may be no reason to kill him, but there is not to let him live either."

Ulquiorra let out a small sigh. "Grimmjow, do you not understand? Aizen-sama is not worried about the boy's current strength, but his potential, his growth rate. The boy may have some talent, but it is so unbalanced that it is more likely that he will be swallowed up and that he will end up destroying himself."

Grimmjow looked unconvinced. "And what will you do if he manages to overcome it and stand a threat against us?! Huh?! What will you do then?!" he cried out, almost standing up from his relaxed stance as his anger got ahold of him.

Ulquiorra didn't bat an eye. "Then… I'll slaughter him myself." Grimmjow stiffened, obviously not expecting such a provocative response. He sat back down.

"Well then. It seems that you have things under control Ulquiorra. Do as you please." Aizen intoned, his deep voice reverberating across the chambers. "This meeting is ajourned."

0o0o0

(Rooftop of Hueco Mundo)

Cue Music (**Bleach– Spiritual Bonds**). This song is just perfect for the mood.

Damnit. That had been Ulquiorra's decision. To spare Kurosaki Ichigo and watch quietly as he fell prey to his own unstable power. All the pale Arrancar had done was to hasten the downfall by kidnapping the Inoue girl. Kurosaki was a lot like him, in fact. Those same determined eyes, the same will of fire, even the same spiky hair. So it was inevitable that Kurosaki would meet the same end as him, dying alone, unable to fulfill his wish, unable to protect his precious people. Right? So why then, was he the one beaten? Why then, was he the one missing and arm and leg?

He stared at Kurosaki Ichigo, who stared back in shock and horror. "Did I do that to you?" He stood up indignantly and brandished his sword. "Cut my leg off too! Cut my arm off too! I want to see this through as equals!"

Ulquiorra's eyes hardened. "Fine." He took a step forward, but then suddenly, his wings began to disintegrate into dust, mixing and dispersing into the stale air of Hueco Mundo. He cursed inwardly. He stared at Kurosaki stoically, solemnly. "It seems its over for me. I don't even have the strength to move." Kurosaki took a step forward, disbelief etched on his face. "Kill me. Kill me now, Kurosaki Ichigo. Or this fight will have no end." he intoned solemnly, almost pleadingly.

Kurosaki clenched his fist. Damnit. Damnit. Why did it have to end this way? "No!" he cried out, his face a rictus of grief and sorrow. "No, I won't do it! I didn't want it to end this way! This isn't the way I wanted to win!" He didn't know why, but he felt a single tear slide down his cheek. Why? It wasn't like he even liked Ulquiorra. The man was the complete antithesis of him. They weren't even remotely alike. So why then, did his heart twist painfully when Ulquiorra asked him to end his life.

Ulquiorra's eyes widened fractionally in surprise then softened, a rare display of emotion for him. What did he expect? The boy was just like him. They were the same, two birds of the same feather. One walked in the light as the other fell to darkness. "I...see." he slowly reached a hand toward the substitute shinigami. "Even in the end, you never did do as expected. Always unpredictable." He stretched the same hand toward Inoue Orihime, who had stayed in the back, witnessing the exchange with her hands clasped on her breast with worry. "I'm starting to find you two a bit interesting."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he recalled a conversation he had with the girl.

0o0o0

_"What would you wish you could be, if you were not you. If you were not some human girl imprisoned in Las Noches, never to escape. What would you be?" Ulquiorra asked the girl, Inoue. The answer shook him._

_She answered without hesitation. "I-I would wish to be the rain. The rain, that acts a bridge and connects the earth and the sky, which will never be together. That way, I might be able to bind the hearts of my friends together. I think I understand you a little bit more, Ulquiorra-san. You're lonely aren't you? You're heart is empty. I wish I were the rain, so I could, maybe, fill that void in your heart."_

_Ulquiorra gave no sign of surprise, but inside, his heartbeat was thundering. He stepped forward and placed a hand on her breast. "And what is a heart? What does it mean to bind hearts together, to make hearts as one?" he asked._

_"Maybe it's impossible to feel exactly the same as another person, but you can still set aside your differences and __you can treasure your friends and keep them close to your heart. I think that's what it means to make your hearts as one." she answered, her eyes shining with determination and only a slight touch of fear._

_Ulquiorra turned away, so that she would__ not see the slight smile on his face. "Is that so?" Unbeknownst to him or her, he had grown fond of the girl. She reminded him of someone from long ago, someone that he could not for the life of him, remember._

0o0o0

Ulquiorra stretched a hand toward Orihime, who tensed slightly under his gaze. "Woman, do you fear me?"

She relaxed and gave him a tearful, heartfelt, compassionate smile. "No, I do not."

He kept his gaze on her for a moment, drinking in the compassion that she exuded. She reminded him of someone, but who? Why did she look so sad to see him go? He was the one dying but she was the one who looked in pain. "I see." he said finally. Orihime reached out a hand to grasp his, perhaps to attempt to keep him in this world, to somehow reverse his death, but right before they made contact, his fingers dispersed into dust, like his wings. Then his hand, then his arm. '_A heart.'_ he thought. _'What is that? Would I see it if I cracked open your chest? If I broke open your skull, would I see it inside? You humans say the word so easily, just like-'_ he stopped just as understanding flooded through him. He gave a small smile, '_I get it now. This is it. This in my hand. All along...'_

_He let out a contented sigh, the last breath he would take in this world, Hueco Mundo, and felt the rest of body dissolve into dust and ash._

_All that was left was a solitary green eye, staring at the tear-stricked girl and the grim, young shinigami..._

_'her heart was in my hands.'_

_...and then even that last remaining fragment of Ulquiorra was gone in the wind._

_**Review!**_


	3. The Back that Fades Away

Chapter 3: The Back that Fades Away

**Disclaimer: I thought about now would be a good time to put disclaimer. After all, I wouldn't want to get sued right? Or maybe I do. I would take this to court, where Kishimoto and Kubo would be forced to appear in order to prosecute me. Then I would challenge them to a duel to the death, in which I would wager the ownership of each manga. I must be cautious my friends, because everyone knows that all manga artist are actually writing their life stories in disguise. But fear not, I will stand strong and be full of soul! (haha so punny) Then I'll ask for their autographs before I force them to commit seppuku and behead them. Wahahahah!**

**None of this actually had me disclaiming. HAHA, you'll never catch me! FullofSeoul, up up and away! (Voice fades off into distance)**

**Sorry for the wait! There was vacation, then Summer Assignments (which I was in the middle of doing before I got bored), so I was a little busy. Oh yea, I added song recomendations to my action scenes in chapter 2 if anyone cares at all**

**Review Responses whee!**

**DemonandaGun: **Also I wasn't suggesting a super-strong Ulquiorra and you're right about a living body weakening his overall reishi, what I simply meant is don't make him timid, I don't know if you read the most recent Naruto/Ulquiorra story, where he's "careful" around Konoha. Konoha isn't a strong village, I mean they got wiped out by Pein and half of them got taken down by Konan, neither of which are really strong if you look at how Sage Naruto decimated Pein's other paths. They also make him weaker than Sasori or Deidara, yeah no, that pink haired Espada (Forgot his name because really who cares) could kill both of them easily, Hell Loly could probably beat them if she tried. I agree super-powered would be boring, but I think the only one's whom would be on the level of even a "weakened" Ulquiorra are Gaara, the Raikage, Onoki, Obito, and Madara, possibly Mei too, but everyone else would fall short, of course the resurrected Kages could probably fight on his level as could the Jinchuriki, especially Kirabi. It's your story though, I'm just suggesting don't make him TOO weak like so many others do, keep in mind the Espada are much stronger than Ninja (Hence why I hate the crossovers where Bleach characters invade Naruto's world and a "stupid" Naruto can fight on par with a Captain... yeah, no) it doesn't hurt to make him a bit overpowered because Ulquiorra was basically untouchable in his fight with Ichigo but it was still entertaining.

**A: He won't be weak, I promise. He will kick ass, but at the same time he will spill blood as well. When the time comes for Konoha's reckoning, there will be hell, I promise. It'll end up looking like what Pein did, but that won't be until a lot later. The pink-haired Espada's name is Szayel-Apollo Granz, but who really cares. (Mini challenge: If anyone can remember the name of the 9th espada, the one that disguised as Kaien Shiba, without looking it up, you get a cookie. That mofo's name is impossible to remember.)**

**Tormound: **The powers alone make Ulquiorra overpowered in a fight, not necessary a bad thing. Only people that would give him any trouble would be the extreme speedsters.

**A:** **That depends. Pein might give him a good fight, even if he's not very fast, especially a resurrected Pein. Itachi would be able to, if I could somehow get rid of Itachi's disease. And these two aren't exactly the fastest. It'll be a surprise. (lol, let's make an omake of Ulquiorra losing to Ebisu. :]... or let's not... ever.)**

**Makurayam: **I'm terribly sorry, but I think you're a little to obsessed w/ Architechts. Grimjow's "inspiration" is a real. strecth. If you could find any proper validation for such a theory, I would accept it. Most of these names are probably coincidental. Why don't you instead translate the names find there meaning. I mean, half the people you've suggested Kubo most likely has never heard about.

**A:** **This one made me crack up and feel depressed at the same time. I don't even care about architects! It was just something I found while looking up the origins of Ulquiorra's name! T-T. Plus, Kubo himself said the inspiration of many of his arrancar names were architects. Oh, the names of the Espada's themselves have no real meaning like Ichigo's does (which means "he who protects"). There is no legit japanese translation to these names, as they are written in Katakana instead of Hiragana. There are plenty of theories that make sense, but then they're just theories. And if you decide to share them, some person will accuse you of being obsessed with architects.**

**hornet07:** Like the fact that Tsunade isn't included in the bashing. Never made sense to me. Then again, Kakashi bashing doesn't make sense either but whatever.

I hope you make Ulquiorra ridiculously OP like I've seen in another fic that adhered to the same challenge. Can't remember the name. Anyway, I don't think godlike powers make a story boring. It would actually be fun to see Ulquiorra spread despair among his enemies with them being unable to do anything.

At the very least, I hope you preserve Tsunade, Shizune and Jiraya because I really can't picture them being that evil towards Naruto. They never had any problem with the fox.

**A: The answers to your questions are above. Sorry that I can't make him ridiculously OP. Tsunade and Shizune will get a break, since Naruto knows they didn't mean to hurt him. Jiraiya will get his ass handed to him before Naruto forgives him. After all, he doesn't have an excuse, he wasn't brainwashed through a genjutsu. What the hell was he doing while Naruto was being executed? Perving on girls?**

**Blackplant: **Great chapter. I really appreciate the fact that you put the entire Bleach ordeal into one chapter and changed the end slightly so your story evolves the right way. That way we can all look forward to the actual beginning of the story now that these prologue chapters are over. Please keep up with the good work.

**A: Thanks dawg! Love your continuous reviews. I'm actually not glad at all that the prologue chapters are over, since those were actually pretty easy to churn out. Now I'm going to have to use these things called imagination and creativity. Goddamit... This is the first non-prologue chapter, I hope you enjoy!**

**Eien Michi: **This plot never gets old.

**A: Thanks, I love you too.**

**ENJOOOOYY THIS CHAPTER!**

**Note: I wonder if anyone's noticed that the titles of chapters are OST from either Naruto or Bleach, that I feel match the chapter, or the key part of it, well. (Except for chapter 2, but I put another song there where it got emotional)**

Ulquiorra awoke to find himself floating in nothingness. He closed his eyes tightly and willed it to go away. Every time he died, it seemed he went to a different realm, where he played another important role, and was killed. Kami sure was a bitch. The light brightened, causing him to close his eyes more tightly. No way, Kami be damned, he was not going to let this happen again. The light slowly faded and Ulquiorra cracked open one eye cautiously.

He was in some forest. He recognized it instantly. After all, it was in this forest that he began his journey as a shinobi. It the same forest where Iruka had given him his headband. However, even as he watched, the scene faded away and piece by piece remade itself into a cold barren desert, Hueco Mundo. In front of him was a huge white tree, and in it he saw a familiar Vasto Lorde slumbering. He reached a hand out and even that scene shattered into pieces.

"Having fun? Taking a walk down memory lane are you?"

Ulquiorra whipped around to see a silhouette walking toward him. He tensed, prepared for a fight. After all, the figure exuded more power that even Aizen, if that were even possible. But mixed in with all of that crushing pressure was the warm glow of compassion. It made him want to gag, if he could. Light slowly began to move up the figure's body, as if he were walking into the light out of some invisible shadow. Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes.

"Yare yare, why so tense, Ulquiorra-bozu?" the figure smiled. He had bright, sun-kissed blonde hair, cerulean blue eyes, and three whisker marks etched on each side of his face. However, he wasn't dressed in his standard jumpsuit, but a white kimono embroidered with the symbol for fire. There was no headband on his forehead, but in his hand he held a certain triangular hat, the Hokage's hat. Ulquiorra tensed and brought a hand to his head, wincing imperceptibly. What the hell was going on? Naruto was still inside him, he was sure, who was this person? The figure cocked his head to the side, feigning astonishment.

"Why, don't you recognize me?" the figure sniffled in mock sadness. He laughed once then grew serious. The cerulean blue eyes flashed a royal violet and his sclera darkened to the darkest black and all mirth dropped from the blonde's face. "I am the Reio (Soul King), child. I am Kami. I govern the world. I see all. I knit you in your mother's womb and remade your body cell by cell after your death." He gestured to his body. "This is not my true form, hollow. I am your king, and a king must know each of his subjects. This, my son, is the form of your deepest desires. You, in the Hokage's robes, ruling over a village that has accepted you for who you are."

Ulquiorra scoffed. "Impossible, I have let those desire go, there is nothing in my heart save for darkness and emptiness. My emotions died a long time ago." Ulquiorra deadpanned.

The Reio smiled sadly, as if he understood all of Ulquiorra's pain. "Yet, like a human grounded, wishing to touch the sky, you, shrouded in darkness, yearn to touch the light. Your emotions are not gone, son of mine." He reached out and touched Ulquiorra's cheeks tenderly, like a mother would her son, "I apologize, It was not my intention to have Uzumaki Naruto leave the world so soon. There was so much in store for you. I had so many plans, you had so much potential. I underestimated the magnitude of the prejudice humans can put through. I apologize."

Ulquiorra moved the hand away from his cheek with some measure of disgust. "There is no need to apologize. It was better that Uzumaki Naruto died. Otherwise, Ulquiorra Cifer would not have been born. I must thank you, in fact, for ridding me of that empty existence. I am content."

The Soul King only gave Ulquiorra another smile, "But I am not. You should have had a life, a full one, Naruto-bozu. I sent you here to fix my mistake. Would you like another chance at life, Naruto? A chance to make things the way you wanted them to be?" He reached out a hand. "Take my hand, Naruto. I will fulfill your wish."

Ulquiorra took a long look at the offered hand and batted it away. "I have no wish to return to Konoha. I have lived a full life as Ulquiorra Cifer. I had a purpose, I fought with honor." He closed his eyes briefly, reliving his memories. "I received a heart." His verdant green eyes snapped open and turned frigid, "Nothing awaits me in Konoha. No one needs me."

The Reio's violet eyes hardened. "The heart you obtained, why do you cherish it so? Have you not already received one, even before Ulquiorra Cifer was born? What of Hinata? Have your memories deteriorated so, Ulquiorra? Do you not remember your companions? Have you forgotten Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba? Have you forgotten Neji, Lee, Tenten? Ino, Shi-"

"They were not there. When my heart was pierced by my best friend. When I choked on my own blood. When I looked at the crowd for one sympathetic soul. They were not there. They abandoned me when I needed them most." Ulquiorra's eyes had lost all emotion, darkening and losing what little light they had. He was not Ulquiorra, reincarnation of Uzumaki Naruto, he was Ulquiorra, The Cuarto Espada and the Blade of Emptiness.

"They were mourning your death. Each one gathered in the Forest of Death and set up a memorial for you. Iruka carved your name into the Gravestone of deceased heroes, against the wishes of the village. Are those the actions of people who have betrayed you Ulquiorra?"

"They gave up on me. They did not attempt to save me. Instead they mourned me even before I had crossed the threshold of death."

The Reio waved his hands, sighing in exasperation, and the world around them went dark. "I will show you then. The hearts of the people who have betrayed you." The world brightened and Ulquiorra found himself hovering over the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Unbeknownst to him, he let out a growl, quiet but feral, when he saw the village. The Reio took his hand. "Come."

**(Cue Naruto Music -****Shirotsumekusa****)**

The two sped towards the Forest of Death where, supposedly, his monument was. Gathered around it were all of the Konoha Eleven and their mentors, save for Team 7. Each had grown, Ulquiorra guess it to have been a few years after his death. Konohamaru was on his hands and knees, bawling. Ulquiorra gave no reaction, except for a small tightening of his fist. The action did not go unnoticed by the Soul King, who smiled inwardly. Each of the Konoha Eleven stared at the grave marking with dead eyes, even Kiba, who was as brash as Naruto had been, was unnaturally subdued. Asuma lit a cigarette and exhaled heavily. The jonin had heavy bags under his eyes, as if he had not much sleep. Huh, who knew he cared?

Shikamaru spoke up after a while. "It's been two years. The pain hasn't diminished at all." He brought a hand up to his chest. "It hurts..." He closed his eyes and tears began to fall freely. "I'm so sorry Naruto. I wish I were stronger. I could've saved you..." A dry chuckle escaped his lips. "I hope you're having the time of your life up there. Is there ramen?" The group muttered their agreements. Each person stepped forward and said a few words to his picture, the smiling visage of a twelve year old blond, Each person paid their respects to their friend, their brother. Konohamaru stepped forward with Iruka, but could not manage a word. The silence was only marred the soft sobs of the young boy. Iruka gently pressed Konohamaru's shoulder and the two stepped back. When Hinata stepped forward, Ulquiorra felt a slight pang deep within his chest.

Hinata had grown and had filled out. Her hair fell past her shoulders and onto her back and her light gray jacket had changed to a purple one. Her.. womenly assets had grown significantly. But that wasn't all, her visage was no longer shy and nervous. Grief had changed her. She no longer looked down at the ground shyly, but held her chin up in grim determination. She now set her lips in a thin line, quiet but confident. Ulquiorra turned away. He could not bear the sight.

Hinata got down on her knees in front of Naruto's grave and everyone stepped backwards, giving her space to let out her heart. She smiled grimly, "It's been a while Naruto-kun. Two years and the pain hasn't stopped at all. She reached inside her jacket and pulled out a crystal necklace. "I still have this, Naruto-kun. It's my reminder of you, my reminder that you'll return. You'll come back someday, I haven't given up hope. I'll wait for you until that day. Forever and ever, faithfully, as long as it takes. And when you come back, let's take the next step together." she said, tears running down her cheeks. She got up and as one, all the ninjas dispersed and Teuchi and Ayame began their walk home.

The world turned black again and the Naruto look-alike Reio looked at Ulquiorra, who was still staring at the spot where his memorial had been, as if trying to memorize each miniscule detail. "Do you still deny your wish Ulquiorra? Will you go to the Elemental Nations."

Ulquiorra let out a long suffering sigh. He wanted to go, he really did. He wanted to see his old companions, the ones that did not betray him, and celebrate his return with them. But he couldn't. He couldn't bring himself to form new relationships with them. Their's was doomed to failure. After all, he was no longer even a human. "I... cannot. I will not. Your promise is an empty one. You show me images of a happy life, a full life, but you yourself know this is not possible. How can I return to the World of the Living? How can I mend and begin a relationship with Hinata? I am not even a human. I am merely a collection of empty and lost souls. This is doomed to failure. Why do you mock me so, Reio?"

The Reio growled in genuine anger. "Why do you deny yourself this happiness, child? You have always shrouded yourself with darkness, unwilling to step into the light, but always yearning for it. What change will occur if you deny the hand that aids you? What then? Will you ignore the broken hearts of your comrades? Will you break your promise to the girl? Choose Ulquiorra, Choose Naruto. And choose wisely."

Ulquiorra took a step back. A promise? Hinata?

0o0o0

_"Naruto... I wish we could've been closer. I have so many regrets. I wanted to talk to you, get to know you." She smiled sadly._

_The Uzumaki's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, "Why though? I'm the village pariah. No one likes me, and I'm even being killed just to prove a point. Why me?" The blue-eyed jinchuuriki frowned when he felt a faint prickling in his eyes as tears threatened to form._

_"Because..." Hinata strengthened her grip on Naruto's hands and leaned in to give him a chaste kiss on his lips, surprising herself with her own boldness. Maybe it was because she had nothing to lose. "You're always so strong, you never let anything depress you. You lift me up when I am down. You are my sun when I am left in the dark. You are my inspiration and I... I love you. And I'll always remember you."_

0o0o0

Ulquiorra brought his head to his hands, his mind reeling. How had he forgotten? He was so stupid! Even as he thought though, his mind began to relive a different conversation.

0o0o0

_Ulquiorra stretched a hand toward Orihime, who tensed slightly under his gaze. "Woman, do you fear me?"_

_She relaxed and gave him a tearful, heartfelt, compassionate smile. "No, I do not." _

_He kept his gaze on her for a moment, drinking in the compassion that she exuded. She reminded him of someone, but who? Why did she look so sad to see him go? He was the one dying but she was the one who looked in pain. "I see." he said finally. Orihime reached out a hand to grasp his, perhaps to attempt to keep him in this world, to somehow reverse his death, but right before they made contact, his fingers dispersed into dust, like his wings. Then his hand, then his arm._

_However, through his slow deterioration, he kept his gaze on the crying and smiling girl. The smile was fake, that much was obvious, but she kept up the facade, as if determined to give Ulquiorra some sort of solace, some sort of happy ending. Yet, even as Ulquiorra kept his eye on the girl, her figure began to overlap with a ghost from the past. A familiar lavender-eyed Hyuga's outline began to overlap with the crying form of Orihime. Both smiled at him while tears stained their cheeks, smiled for him, determined to give him one happy view before he fell into the void. They were so similar, how had he not realized? How had he forgotten her? He stretched what was left of his body towards the two girls, maybe if he tried hard enough, his deterioration would reverse and he would be able to accept the gift they seemed to want to give him. What gift did they so desperately wish to entrust him with? 'A heart,' he realized. He smiled then and relaxed. 'What is a heart? I see now. This in my hand. All along...'_

_He let out a contented sigh, the last breath he would take in this world, Hueco Mundo, and felt the rest of his body dissolve into dust and ash. All that was left was a solitary green eye, staring at the tear-stricken girl and the memory from the past..._

_'...her heart was in my hands."_

_...and then even that last remaining fragment of Ulquiorra was gone in the wind._

0o0o0

Ulquiorra clutched his head. How had he forgotten her? All of these years, she had waited for him, and he had forgotten her, thrown her away like trash. How could he? He stood up and let go of his aching head. The least he could do is make up for her. He raised one of his hands and circled his hollow hole. Maybe, just maybe, he would be able to regain his heart. And maybe, just maybe, he would be able to give his heart to her one day, just as she had done to him. He faced the Reio, who was staring at him with an odd mixture of pride and sorrow, a lopsided smile on his face. "I will go to the Elemental Nations, if only to ease the troubled hearts of those who mourn for me. Send me then."

The Reio smiled and pieces of his skin began to peel away piece by piece. Underneath there was nothing but a mass of Reiryoku. Soon, there was no trace of Uzumaki Naruto on the Reio's face, and replacing it was a being of pure power. "**You have made your decision then?"**

Ulquiorra answered with a curt nod, never one for formalities.

"**And who will return to the Elemental Nations? Uzumaki Naruto, the Child of the Prophecy, or Ulquiorra Cifer, the Blade of Emptiness? These are your choices, child. Choose one, and choose wisely.**"

Ulquiorra hesitated, unsure of his decision. He preferred this form, it showed the depths of his despair and fitted him better than the other one had. However, the form of Uzumaki Naruto belonged in the Elemental Nations, just as Ulquiorra belonged in Hueco Mundo, and all of his few companions knew him as such. He blinked as a voice in his Inner World gave him a suggestion. He thought about it and nodded. He turned to face the Soul King.

"I choose both."

The Soul King bristled. "**Do you mock me? One is one, child. Choose one to return and the other to stay."**

Ulquiorra shook his head, "Uzumaki Naruto and I are one. I was born from his despair, and he was born from my hope. We are one and the same. You cannot separate us. I will return as Ulquiorra Cifer, as this form is more fitting, but neither will Uzumaki Naruto disappear." Ulquiorra held up his katana, remembering his visit into his inner world and the person he found waiting in it. "He is my Zanpakuto, and you may not dislodge a part of my soul."

The Reio stared in what seemed like disbelief. It was hard to tell because after losing Naruto's features he was naught but a silhouette. Did this person actually manage to outsmart him? Damnit, how the hell did that happen? The Soul King nodded in grudging respect. "**You make a valid point, my son. You will return to the Elemental Nations as both Ulquiorra Cifer and Uzumaki Naruto**." The Reio face-palmed uncharacteristically. He was losing his touch. "**Best of luck, young one.**"

Light enveloped the form of Ulquiorra, and he began to compress into a small, Rasengan-sized ball of Reiatsu. The Soul King nodded and cupped the ball gently with both hands. He smiled at it lovingly. After all, a king must love his subjects equally. He brought the ball of life to his lips and his smile widened "**Hurry then, my child. Gaara is in need.**" The Reio blew gently and the ball dispersed into dust.

0o0o0

Ulquiorra formed piece by piece. It was an interesting feeling, not unlike when his body had exploded into a fine mist while becoming a hollow. His conscious had spread far and wide before being gathered into the familiar form of the Fourth Sword. His body finished reforming and he immediately swooned and clutched his head. That stupid method of transportation had given him a headache. He scanned his surroundings to get a good bearing on where he was.

He was in a desert not unlike Hueco Mundo, if a bit more warmer and more bright. The lands were scorched by the blazing sun, which seemed to loom above them, larger than Ulquiorra thought it should have been. Pale, granular sand stretched as far as he could see, marred only by pale, bare trees jutting out randomly in the landscape. Ulquiorra drank in the sight, not quite believing that he had returned, that he was alive again. He took a step forward, and began to walk forward slowly in the general direction of Sunagakure, his footprints leaving a trail behind him. He stopped and looked back at his tracks and was filled with a sense of nostalgia. It was just like his wanderings in Hueco Mundo, except that now, the tracks in the barren desert filled him with a sense of satisfaction. The former Espada looked down and quickly zipped is shirt up. There was no need to show others his hollow hole without good reason. He nodded once and rushed to Sunagakure, wondering why the Reio said that Gaara needed his help. By the time he reached the gates of Suna, he had worked up a light sweat. What the hell? A trip of such a distance shouldn't have been taxing at all to his immense spiritual reserves. So why was he so tired? He guessed it to have to do with having a mortal body instead of a pure spiritual one. He filed the thought away for later review and approached the gates.

"Halt! Who goes there?" one of the guards called out, tensing at the sight of the odd-looking young man.

"Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra Cifer. I am merely a traveler. I was told to come to Suna if I wished to see an old friend." Ulquiorra replied, completely at ease amongst the warning killing intent sent his way by the guards. He took a step forward and was met by a kunai.

"Do not move. Who is this friend?" The guard growled. Ulquiorra frowned. Being a master at reading people's emotions, he saw that that man's bluster was merely a bluff and that he was filled with a good amount of fear. Had something bad happened?

"His name is Gaara. Sabaku no Gaara. I hope he is well."

The guards exchanged a glance. This gaijin (foreigner) knew Gaara-sama? "How do you know the Kazekage?"

Ulquiorra raised an eyebrow in pleasant surprise. "Kazekage? It seems Gaara's gotten strong. I'm glad." To his surprise though, the guard's expressions soured.

"He was strong..." The guard's use of past tense did not go unnoticed by Ulquiorra's keen eye. "... but we weren't. It's our fault that Kazekage-sama was captured by those black-cloaks. He was trying to protect us!"

Ulquiorra's expression did not change, but one key word stuck out to him. Black-cloaks? It had to be Akatsuki, there was no doubt about it. "Well then, will you let me into Suna? Or am I forced to spend the night out in this barren desert."

The guards exchanged a cautious glance and one pulled out a walkie-talkie (yes, the Narutoverse has walkie-talkies, Team 7 used them once when they were catching Tora.) The walkie-talkie crackled to life and the guard whispered into it. "Baki-sama, there's a strange man in front of the gates. He says he knows Kazekage-sama, but I've never seen him before. He looks really weird too, with creepy eyes and an emotionless stare. Then he has the funky mask, awkward tear streaks..."

Ulquiorra forced his eye to stop twitching. These idiots... Did they forget that he was right in front of them? The radio crackled, "He knows Gaara-sama?! Let him in, we need all the help we can get if we're to recover him!" The guards looked at each other before nodding once and simultaneously opened the gates.

"Err. Welcome to Suna. Sorry for the rough welcome." The guard on the left said, scratching his head sheepishly, "We're just on high alert 'cause of Kazekage-sama's capture."

Ulquiorra breezed pasted them. "No offense taken. I'll do what I can to help." He sonidoed towards the Kazekage's tower, leaving the guards to gape at the plume of dust he left behind.

He reached the office of the Kazekage and knocked gently. "I am here. Ulquiorra Cifer."

The door quickly opened and Ulquiorra looked up at the grim, half covered face of Baki. "So you are the visitor... Strange, I've never seen you before, yet you say you know Gaara-sama? Come in then." Ulquiorra stepped into the office and tensed as he spied a flash of green, the same hue of green as Konoha's flak jackets. It was Team 7, along with some other odd figure. Ulquiorra felt a flash of anger, but managed to maintain his detached composure.

Baki moved back to the Kazekage's desk and slumped onto it. It was then Ulquiorra how weary the man was. Struggling to keep the peace in Suna, simultaneously organizing a group to recover the Gaara, all while maintaining a force large and strong enough to repel any other attacks. "As you have heard, Gaara has been kidnapped. We figure the group to be called Akatsuki. Cifer-san, this is Team Kakashi from Konoha."

Kakashi held out a hand, giving the stoic Espada a little eye-smile. "Hey, Cifer-san. A friend of Gaara is a friend of ours, so to speak."

Ulquiorra ignored the hand, it was best not to get too familiar at first. "I am Ulquiorra Cifer, the Fourth Sword and the Blade of Emptiness. I am an old friend of Gaara, but it seems he is not here. I have no qualms with working with... Konoha-nin, but I hold no love for that village. Just do not get in my way." Ulquiorra replied frigidly.

Sasuke bristled visibly, "What problem do you have with Konoha, Cifer?"

"That is a story for another day. Baki-san, Do you know where Temari or Kankuro is? Their assistance would be invaluable." Ulquiorra said, turning his back on Sasuke and facing Gaara's old sensei.

Baki shifted uncomfortably, he obviously wasn't at ease with the high tensions in the room. "Temari is at Konoha acting as an ambassador of Suna for the next Chunin Exams. She will return in a few days. Regrettably, we do not have the luxury of waiting. Kankuro, unfortunately, has been poisoned by one of the attacking Akatsuki members. Would you like to see him?"

"I would." Ulquiorra replied. He turned to move out when Baki's voice called out to him again.

"Ah, Cifer-san, I'm sorry but I will have to ask you to entrust your sword to me for the time being. We are on high alert, and we cannot have any potential risks roaming Suna." Baki fidgeted slightly, knowing that a sword to a swordsman was like part of his soul, and knowing the magnitude of his request.

Ulquiorra hesitated and handed over his Zanpakuto, ignoring Naruto's yells of indignation in his Inner World. "I will be sure to collect it before I leave." It was obvious that the sword was made of higher quality than normal, and Ulquiorra did not miss the envious gaze of Sasuke on it. Ulquiorra walked out and headed toward Suna's hospital, where Kankuro was sure to be treated. As he walked, he noticed Team Kakashi catching up to him and matching strides with him.

"So where do you come from Ulquiorra-san?" Sakura asked curiously. With her innocent green eyes, it was hard to tell that this girl would willingly kill a teammate for the approval of a boy. Sickening.

"Far away. Past the Elemental Nations. A place called Hueco Mundo, or Hollow World." Ulquiorra picked up his pace, unwilling to get dragged into a conversation with the traitors. Team 7 sped up to match his pace.

"Oh! You must quite strong then!" Kakashi said, giving Ulquiorra another irritating eye-smile. Well, two could play at that game.

Ulquiorra gave Kakashi an eye-smile back, making sure to make it as sarcastic as possible. The gesture made his face feel weird. "Perhaps you all are just weak, Hatake Kakashi." The Arrancar gave the masked jonin no chance to respond before sonidoing away in the direction of the Hospital.

Kakashi frowned. He had not remember giving the pale man his full name. "Rude one, wasn't he?" he muttered to himself. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an orange book, reviewing his meeting with the green-eyed man and deducing whether he was a threat.

Sasuke clenched his teeth as he trudged forward. How dare that foreigner suggest that he was weak?! He, Uchiha Sasuke! UCHIHA! He was a clan head and he demanded respect! He was going to keep an eye out for the strange man. Ulquiorra Cifer unsettled him.

0o0o0

Ulquiorra quickly entered the room where Kankuro was being cured and found a bunch of medic nin scurrying about, trying to stabilize his condition. There was one old lady trying to identify the type of poison used, but it was obvious that she was failing. The lady sighed, "Sasori always did love his poisons. It's almost impossible to tell what he used, only someone like the Slug Sannin would be able to figure it out."

Ulquiorra stepped forward and placed a hand on Kankuro's shoulder, looking down at the young man's face, which was twisted in pain. The old lady jumped and stared at the pale boy. She hadn't even felt his presence. Ignoring the lady's startled expression, Ulquiorra pricked his own finger and let a drop of blood fall into Kankuro's cut, letting the blood of the two mix. The lady jumped and pushed Ulquiorra out of the way.

"What do you think you're doing lad! Mixing blood is as unsanitary as it gets! What if your blood got into his bloodstream!? If you weren't the right blood-type, it would begin to clot and he would die! What ar-"

Ulquiorra gently pushed her aside and sent a few more drops of blood onto Kankuro. "Quiet woman, I know what I am doing." Satisfied with the amount of blood that had seeped into the comatose boy, Ulquiorra sent a bolt of reiatsu into the boy. Kankuro screamed once and fell limp, save for a few twitches. The whole medical ward fell silent and rushed to Kankuro's side. The lady turned to Ulquiorra, eyes wide with anger and began pummelling him with her fists. Ulquiorra gave no change of expression, although he winced inside. The old lady sure hit hard for her age. He caught her wrists and pointed toward Kankuro. "Watch."

Before her eyes, the cuts on Kankuro began to heal and the pained look on his face began to fade. He let out a sigh of relief and sat up. "I-I'm better now!" he said in surprise. Kankuro looked at his hands, then his side where he had been stabbed, then back at his hands in disbelief. "Who did this?"

Ulquiorra smiled inwardly, but did not respond to the question. All he had done was a simple example of a hollow's High-speed Regeneration ability. The only thing he had changed was that he added his blood, which acted as a catalyst for the ability to take, as only things with his DNA would be affected, to the injured body of Kankuro. His blood would move into the bloodstream of Kankuro's and after being sufficiently mixed with Kankuro's own, would react with the burst of reiatsu Ulquiorra would send and begin to heal any neighboring injuries and impurities around it. Mainly, the poison. It was simple, really.

It was at that moment Team 7 decided to burst in through the door. "Where's Kankuro?!" Sakura screeched. "I'm a medical ninja, Let me see the patient!"

A Suna medic-nin quickly shushed her and replied, "There's no need miss. He's already healed. The young man over there did something and now Kankuro-sama is all healed. Poison, cuts, and all!" The whole of Team 7 swung their gaze to the dispassionate stranger, except for the new member Ulquiorra had yet to be introduced to, who just gave him a interested glance.

This time Sakura bounded over and introduced herself. "I'm Haruno Sakura! You must be some medic-nin to be able to heal Kankuro that easily."

Ulquiorra looked her over then replied, "I am not a medic-nin. I am not a ninja at all, merely a traveler. You must just be fairly imcompetent."

Sakura's expression darkened, and she raised a fist to attempt to strike the rude man, but before she could she felt a gust of wind blow past her. She turned to see an old lady assaulting Kakashi-sensei.

"Sakumo! You dare show your face here!? And to me, no less!" The woman growled, her comical demeanor dropping away to reveal a battle-hardened warrior. She withdrew a kunai and attempted to stab the helpless jonin. Ulquiorra looked on with a sense of amusement and a growing hope that the lady would succeed.

"Ch-ch-chiyo-sama!" Kakashi said, backpedalling furiously away from the now-named Chiyo. "I'm not Sakumo!"

Chiyo didn't stop her onslaught. "And so what? Konoha-nin, bah! They're all the same, murdering scum!" She raised her kunai and prepared to plunge it into Kakashi's skull. The kunai's descent was halted when a hand grabbed her wrist.

"I wouldn't suggest doing that, old hag." Sasuke whispered. "I've made heads roll for less." He smirked maliciously at the lady's scandalized expression but froze when he felt sharpened fingertips on his throat.

"I wouldn't suggest doing that, arrogant fool." Ulquiorra whispered, his clawed hands tapping a beat on Sasuke's adam's apple. "I've ripped apart heads for less."

Sasuke glared at the pale man, who stared back impassively, giving nothing away. Kankuro glanced around confusedly. What was going on? He just woke up and now there was killing intent bouncing around all over the place.

Just as the tension was about to reach a breaking point, a satisfied sigh came from Chiyo's mouth as she slumped backwards and closed her eyes. Team Seven stared with wide eyes at the seemingly discorporate woman. The medic-nin rushed to check her, when she burst out laughing, "Sorry, sorry, I was pretending I was dead." Everyone, save for Ulquiorra, tripped over their own feet and face-planted. The tension eased in the room.

Ignoring the eccentric women, Ulquiorra turned and faced Kankuro. "Are you alright?" he asked, his tone slightly warmer towards the Suna-nin than it had been to Team 7. The difference was slight, but it did not go unnoticed by the trained ears of the ninjas.

"I-I am fine. Who are you?" Kankuro asked.

Ulquiorra stared at him for a while, until Kankuro began to fidget under the dark gaze of those poisonous green orbs. "A friend, nothing more." Ulquiorra replied finally. "I would like to ask you though. Is there anything that contains Gaara's chakra signature? I will require it if I am to locate him?"

Kankuro frowned then answered, "If anything, It would be his Kazekage robes, as he wears it most of the time."

Ulquiorra nodded. "Will you stand, Kankuro-san? Come with me back to his office." He then turned to Chiyo, who had regained her composure. "And you too, my lady." Chiyo cackled, what a charmer.

"H- Hold on a sec! I thought you said you weren't a ninja, what're you going to do with Gaara's chakra?" Sakura interrupted loudly.

"Yes... I can see that your chakra levels are barely above a civilian's. What use will you be?" Sasuke agreed.

Grabbing Kankuro's and Chiyo's hands, Ulquiorra moved towards the window of the hospital. "More use that you, it seems, Uchiha Sasuke." Ulquiorra said softly, but putting emphasis on the last words, as if it were a curse. He flashed away from the hospital in a burst of static, leaving a thoroughly calumniated group of Konoha-nins.

"Who the hell does he think he is!? Sha!" Sakura roared, pumping a fist.

The others of the group were more quiet. Sasuke seethed internally, how dare the gaijin belittle him like that. Kakashi was quiet, in deep contemplation and worry about this new stranger. Sai kept his fake smile up, but made himself a quick note to himself to report his findings to Danzo-sama.

"At any rate, we can't let the strange fellow get all the glory, can we?" Kakashi said with a little eye-smile, breaking the tense silence amongst the group. "Let's catch up while we still can." Team 7 nodded and each jumped out of their respective windows. The head medic watched each one with a twitching eyebrow. Stupid ninjas, there was a door for a reason, would it kill them to use it for once?

0o0o0

Ulquiorra retrieved his sword from Baki and stood waiting at the front gates of Sunagakure. He sent out his Pesquisa (Spanish for "Inquiry", Japanese for "Probe Circuit") and made sure of Gaara's weak and flickering reiatsu. The raven-haired arrancar frowned. Perhaps it was just him, but he felt that the range of his Pesquisa had shrunk as well. He filed the thought away and went back to complaining inwardly. He sighed, humans were really slow. All he had really needed to do was to retrieve his sword (he wouldn't have minded leaving it, but his inner spirit probably wouldn't shut up about it afterwards), and memorize Gaara's chakra signature. Seriously, he had been waiting forever. Just as he was about to delve deeper into his internal grumblings, he was broken out of his reverie by the soft swoosh of Chiyo and Kankuro shunshinning in front of him.

"All ready!" Kankuro called out cheerfully. He gestured to the huge bundle on his back and a series of scrolls on his person.

"Ulquiorra-san, be a dear and help an old lady will you?" Chiyo asked, hobbling towards Ulquiorra in such an exaggerated fashion he couldn't help but know it was fake. He cocked his head back, as if asking what, and the old lady proceeded to hop onto his back. "Go!" she cried, pumping a fist back and forth.

Ulquiorra gave no change of expression. "As you wish, my lady." he intoned solemnly and rocketed towards the direction of Gaara's weak presence. Kankuro yelped in surprise at being left behind and took off after them.

As they were running, the mood took a tenser turn. Kankuro turned towards Ulquiorra and asked, "Ne Ulquiorra-san, do you know what we are going up against? And how do you even know Gaara?"

Ulquiorra spared him not a glance, instead concentrating on the flickering chakra signature. "The Akatsuki, I believe. The only people I am remotely familiar with among the organization are Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisami. I believe that someone named Sasori is part of it as well, seeing as Chiyo-sama talked about his poisons. As for how I know Gaara, he was -is- a dear friend of mine a few years back. Any other superfluous questions?"

Kankuro frowned, "Yeah, lots." The two fell into a tense silence, as Chiyo had fallen asleep. After a while, Ulquiorra turned towards Kankuro, "What do you feel about the Konoha ninja?"

He blinked, "What about them?"

"Do you trust them? Are they your comrades? Would you give them your heart?"

Kankuro frowned again. This pale man was confusing as hell. "Well, there was a time when I could trust a Konoha-nin with my life, or at least somewhere along those lines, but that trust has dwindled quite a bit." He sighed. "Really, the only people I'd even work with gladly are the Konoha Eleven, and even there Sakura and Sasuke are pushing it." Noticing Ulquiorra's gaze, he quickly elaborated, "Konoha's relations with the rest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages have deteriorated quite a bit. It really began the execution of their jinchuuriki (Power of Human Sacrifice) two years ago." Kankuro began to look ahead and his eyes began to gloss over as he recalled the memories of a few years ago. Because of his trip into memory lane, he missed the slight tensing of Ulquiorra's frame at the mention of Konoha's jinchuuriki. "His name was Naruto. He was a great guy, always smiling and ready to help others. With his death, Suna became more reluctant to deal with Konoha, especially after Gaara became Kazekage. The Mizukage soon followed our example after finding out that the Naruto who died was the same that brought Kirigakure its prosperity through the Great Naruto Bridge and its trade. Kumogakure was always on tense terms with Konoha and the execution of their jinchuuriki drew the wedge between them further, especially because Kumo sees their own jinchuuriki as heroes and guardians. Of course, Iwa still hates Konoha because of the last Shinobi War, execution or not." He let out a bark of laughter, "Who knew Naruto would have such an effect on the Shinobi World after his death?"

"That's not all." A voice jumped in from behind Ulquiorra. Both Kankuro and Ulquiorra jumped as they realized that Chiyo had woken up and had been listening to Kankuro's monologue. "With no more Ninja allies left to them, Konoha began to use force to maintain alliances. Because Konoha has the largest number of shinobi in their ranks and because they were the most untouched throughout the Third Shinobi War through The Yondaime Hokage, there was nothing that the other villages to really do, save for sparking another war. Not only that, but Danzo has taken the mantle of Hokage after Tsunade collapsed from mental stress. Our spies are not exactly sure why, but they suspect some sort of long-term genjutsu forced upon her. If so, it's a relief she's not completely catatonic." The old lady shook her head wearily, "It's been a mess these past couple of years."

"Of course, there's still some hope." Kankuro inputted. "There are a few in Konoha that disagree with this changed Konoha."

Ulquiorra motioned to Kankuro and the group took a sharp right into a forest. "Is this the Konoha Eleven you've mentioned?"

Kankuro nodded, "It consists of most of the heirs of influential clans in Konoha, like the Hyuuga and the Nara. They and their parents claim to respect Uzumaki Naruto, even if the whole clan does not."

"We will see..." Ulquiorra murmered sending another burst of speed forward. The three continued their journey in silence

0o0o0

(Unknown Location)

Ripple-patterned eyes flickered to life on a silhouette. It stood upon one of the fingers of an eerie statue. The statue had nine eyes, four of which were open. Its spiked teeth were open in a twisted grimace. Seven other sillouhette's appeared on each of the other fingers.

"**Where are Sasori and Deidara? Why do they tarry?**" The figure with the strange purple eyes spoke.

"**HA! Those idiots probably couldn't even handle one jinchuuriki, you shoulda sent me!**" one of the figures barked, this one had amethyst eyes and an unconventional scythe with three blades on his back.

"Who's an idiot, Hidan? Do you wish to die?" a quiet voice reverberated throughout the dark chamber. Two figures approached the statue. One had long blond hair tied into a ponytail with a mass of hair covering his left eye. The other was huge, a giant of a man, and had an expressionless, wooden face. The shorter one threw a bloody and burnt body into the circle where the Akatsuki members were gathered.

"Yeah, Hidan! He was easy, yeah! A real weakling!" the blonde one cried.

"Quiet, Deidara." The other figure said. He turned towards the figure with the ripple-patterned eyes, the obvious leader of the group, and bowed. The now identified Deidara hastily followed suite. "Leader-sama. We have returned with the Ichibi no Tanuki, Shukaku."

"**So you have.**" The leader responded. "**Quickly, we must begin the ritual.** **Suna seems to have sent backup. One group is almost at our doorway. It is led by an unknown person, but the group contains Kankuro and Chiyo. Sasori, say hello to your Grandmother, I'm sure she misses you. Another is further away, deep in the forest. This is led by Hatake. Itachi, go have a little family reunion. Still another is near the riverside. This is the Taijutsu specialist group, led by Might Gai. Kisame, I'm sure you were feeling bored. Kill them, all of you. We mustn't let any interrupt the ritual once it has begun.**"

The mentioned members of the Akatsuki gave a curt nod in acknowledgment and disappeared.

The Leader raised his hands and the statue on which the members of the Akatsuki stood came to life. The hands on which the members stood began to glow with a green light and encompassed each member in a cocoon of light. Each one was marked with a kanji of their respective rings. "**Fuinjustu: Genryu Kyufujin (Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals)!**" the leader cried, moving his hands into the Ram seal. The giant statue roared once and nine streams of chakra shaped like dragons erupted from its gaping maw into Gaara's comatose form. The moment the streams of chakra touched the incapacitated jinchuuriki, Gaara began to scream and thrash, even as his body began to float in front of the statue. Frothy, red substance began to pour from Gaara's eyes and mouth and began to move into the Statue's waiting maw, giving the impression that it was stealing Gaara's soul. Not an altogether inaccurate comparison.

'Quickly' the lead figure thought. 'This new figure Zetsu tells me about unnerves me. He will need watching.'

0o0o0

Ulquiorra sneezed.

"You sick?" Kankuro looked at the arrancar out of the corner of his eye and picked his nose absently.

"Impossible. Disease quails under my might." Ulquiorra deadpanned.

The trio turned a corner and was met by a huge rock cliff. The cliff had a gargantuan rock in front of it with a paper seal on top of it. It was pathetic really. There could not have been a bigger indication evil secret hideout. Ulquiorra glanced at Kankuro, asking for his opinion on what to do. All he got back was a confused shrug.

"Stop dillydallying around like a bunch of idiots!" Chiyo screeched from Ulquiorra's back. "Go up to that paper seal and let me inspect it!" The arrancar began walking on the air in front of him, hardening the atmosphere slightly through his reiatsu and moved in front of the seal. He shifted slightly to the left as to allow the old puppet mistress a better view of the seal, ignoring the awed expressions of his other companion. When Chiyo nodded in understanded, Ulquiorra parroted the nod and moved to rip the seal off and destroy the rock behind it with a solid Hierro enhanced punch. It was not to be.

Chiyo smacked Ulquiorra with the back of her fist, or at least she attempted to before Ulquiorra casually caught the fist. "Do not deign to attack me woman. I work with you to save Gaara, but I will not accept abuse. You are a Suna nin. Act like one, and not a Konoha nin."

Chiyo nodded stiffly, knowing she had overstepped her boundaries. After all, giving her a piggyback hardly meant that the pale man was comfortable with accepting her love taps. "Well then, don't act so impulsive." she sulked. "That seal is a Gofu Kekkai (Five-Seal Barrier). This is obviously the key and the first of the five. There are four others around here. The Gofu Kekkai is impossible to remove unless all five tags are removed at once. Even then, there may be a precautionar-"

"Cero."

The green beam of light tore past the seal, and the torrent of reiatsu moved across the slim thread of chakra connecting the five parts of the Gofu Kekkai to burn each component to a crisp. After the flash faded, all that was left of the seal and the rock behind it were a few pieces of charred rubble and a cloud of debris. "Impossible to remove." Ulquiorra scoffed, "Tch, humans and their arrogance." He gently let down a shocked Chiyo and strode into the chamber without a second glance.

Inside the chamber was Deidara and Sasori. They stared with no small amount of shock at the thin man who had managed to so easily dispatch of Sasori's seal. Ulquiorra stared back emotionless and his gaze hardened imperceptibly when he took sight of a bloody and prone body that was lying on the ground.

"Gaara!" Kankuro cried. He rushed forward but Ulquiorra shot out an arm to halt his progress. "I'll kill you!"

"Sasori, is that you? How you've grown." Chiyo said, her voice laden with sarcasm. "Does it do you good to attack one of your own"

"Hello Grandmother." The giant body of Sasori's said.

"Oh, family time, yeah!" Deidara cried. "Hate to interrupt. I'll just take my leave, yeah." The mouth on his palm spat out a glob of clay which he fashioned into the likeness of a dragon. With a poof, the small figure of the dragon grew life-size. The S-class Iwa nin threw the comatose body of Gaara onto the dragon, and began to climb on himself. "See ya losers!" Just as the dragon was about to take off, there was a flash of light and the metallic draw of the sword. The wings of the dragon fell to the ground with a wet thump. Ulquiorra reappeared next back next to the duo of puppeteers and laid down Gaara's body onto a flat rock. "Kankuro, take care of him." The war-painted puppeteer quickly got down and began moving Gaara away from the battle that was soon to begin. The former Espada moved his gaze to the scandalized Deidara. "You aren't going anywhere."

"That wasn't cool, yeah!" Deidara exclaimed, "You ruined my artful departure!"

"And you ruined my friend's life. No, you destroyed it." Ulquiorra's eye narrowed with suppressed anger and he raised the blade of his Zanpakuto at the two members of Akatsuki who had dared to incur the wrath of the Espada. "And I will return the favor."

Ulquiorra's reiatsu rocketed and suddenly there was an inexplicable pressure pouring down on everyone in the immediate vincity. Kankuro was brought to his knees, gasping for breath. Deidara and Sasori fared better, but they too hunched over in slight discomfort. _What.. is this power? Who is this person?_

"I will show you the meaning of true despair. **Tozase... ****Murciélago.**"

And the word was engulfed in a torrent of emerald light.

**And Cut!**

**Next Chapter will be Chiyo, Ulquiorra, and Kankuro against Deidara and Sasori. I don't know how this happened, it just did. Honest! This chapter was more talking and setting the scene. Next chapter is the battle.**

**Damnit, and I tried so hard to make this one over 10,000 words!**

******OH! Please vote on the poll on my profile for my next story!**

**Review!**


	4. Fade to Black

Chapter 4: Fade to Black

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach. If I did, do you think I would be writing this crap? What's that? Yes?

Yeah, I probably still would be. I'm that pathetic.

Yeah, I know. Thanks.

**A/N: Song for Title is Fade to Blade B13A from the Bleach soundtrack. It took me forever to find the right song... Oh, you don't care? That's cool too. I'm just wallowing in self-pity right now. But seriously listen, It's a damn good song.**

**Right, instead of doing Review responses, which'll take too much space that most of you won't even read I'll just address a few things that y'all people asked me about. IN THE END. **

**So Read.**

**Well, enjoy.**

* * *

(Cue Naruto Music - Need to be Strong)

Chiyo hacked and coughed. It was like trying to take a breath in a room full of smoke, so oppressive was the.. presence in front of her (for it sure wasn't chakra). It surprised her and embarrassed her, considering that she had spent the past four hours on this fellow's back.

The light dispelled in a sudden flash, as if it were blown away by some inexplicable wind. What awaited the member's of Akatsuki was an image from hell. The tunic and pants that Ulquiorra had worn had been replaced by a long white robe, with a single thick black stripe running down the length of it, and intersected by two thin dark lines in an X at the location of his Hollow hole, which stood out with glaring clarity. It was naught but a hole in his body, and it allowed the onlookers to see straight through it to the landscape after him. The robe he wore was white, but it wasn't the reassuring white that symbolized cleanliness, but rather the bleached, dead hue of bone.

His pale skin and clothes contrasted greatly with the pitch black wings that sprouted from his black, making him look like some twisted form of an angel, though bat would be a more appropriate epithet. They jutted from his back, spreading an impressive width of forty feet, painting a dark picture. The cracked piece of mask that had fit snugly over his raven hair had regenerated and now covered the whole of it, much like his days as a Vasto Lorde. The only difference was that it didn't cover his face, rather stopping at his hairline, casting a dark shadow over his pallid face. Not only that, but the faint emerald lines cast in a line on his cheeks had darkened to a thicker tear-line.

0o0o0

Kankuro gasped at the sight of the bleached Espada's hollow hole. There was no solid proof, that was true, but it was a coincidence too uncanny to have no relevance. The raven-haired man in front of him that practically flooded power so dense that it was almost palpable had a hole on his chest. A hole. One that pierced straight through him and exited through his back, allowing Kankuro to see through it. It was impossible, no human could live with such a grievous wound, but that wasn't what Kankuro found perplexing and a bit unsettling. No, it was that Naruto had died by a similar wound, in the same spot.

It was just a coincidence, he assured himself. Naruto would never be this cold.

Right?

0o0o0

Ulquiorra stared distastefully at the two Akatsuki members that had dared to instill his wrath by hurting his friend. "Can you feel it? The hopelessness of despair?" he murmured, brandishing his clawed hand.

"Like hell!" Deidara snarled, quickly regaining his composure and attempting to attack this new unknown threat. The mouths on his palm vomited up a glob of white clay which he quickly formed into a series of clay insects and spiders. "Take this, yeah! I don't even need to use strong jutsu for small fry like you!" The blond Akatsuki threw the bombs in his hands with an exaggerated motion towards the stoic Espada, who merely looked with disdain at the pathetic attempt at an attack.

The little explosives hit the ground and scuttled towards the transformed Ulquiorra. The pale Espada frowned fractionally and raised a finger, sending a small beam of reiatsu toward the little creatures. The mechanics of the move were not unlike Cero, except the power of it was diluted until it was almost useless. However, it was enough to cause the little buggers to detonate prematurely.

"Chiyo-san, assist Kankuro and attack Sasori. A puppeteer would know a puppeteer best." Ulquiorra said, over the roar of the explosives. He formed a lance made out of pure reiatsu to wield and rushed at the surprised Deidara.

Deidara yelped and back flipped away from the rushing Ulquiorra. He stuck his tongue out and pulled some more explosive clay from his pouch. "Maybe I underestimated you. It'll take a bigger bang to take you out, yeah!" He fed the mouths on his palms the volatile clay. They chewed and spit out what looked like a miniature version of a dragon. With a large poof, the dragon expanded to life-size, bigger than both Deidara and Ulquiorra, with enough room to carry both of them with ease. "This is my art, yeah! Art is an explosion!"

The dragon's mouth began to move in a chewing motion, although there was nothing to chew, and the tip of its tail began to shorten. With a splattering sounds, a myriad of little white balls fell out of the dragon's mouth and unfurled. They immediately began to head for the nearest target, Ulquiorra.

"Art? I prefer abstract myself," Ulquiorra murmured, forming another lance of reiatsu in his right hand.

"Let's see what picture we can paint with your blood."

He jumped over the mass of explosives, using his free left hand to send a volley of Balas at the little creatures. The explosives set off a chain reaction, the heat of one exploding setting off the others, obscuring Ulquiorra's frame in a mass of smoke and dust.

"Shit!" Deidara yelled. He ran over and jumped onto the clay dragon, which immediately took to the skies in an attempt to escape the dust cloud that was blocking his vision.

"Do not think you can escape me, human. I rule the skies far better than you grounded fools can." A disembodied voice rang out from the cavern. With a whoosh, the dust in the cave dispersed, revealing nothing but the cracked floors. Deidara whirled his head, searching for the opponent that had disappeared before his very eyes.

"Above."

With a burst of static, Ulquiorra appeared above the Iwa missing-nin, brandishing a lance made purely of reiatsu. "Luz de la Luna (Spanish for "Light of the Moon")" The lance flew towards Deidara's body, piercing his left arm and pinning him to his clay dragon. "Die, by your own explosion." Ulquiorra formed another lance and threw it directly at the dragon's head, impaling it through its head.

The dragon exploded in a huge blast. The fireball of red and white burned through the top of the cavern, blackening the walls and filling the room with dust and debris.

"Tch, weak." Ulquiorra scoffed, raising a hand to brush some non-existent dust off of his bone white robe.

A sword sliced through the air towards Ulquiorra's head, forcing him to raise a finger to stop its attack. "Damnit, Deidara. You couldn't even hold him for more than ten minutes."

Sasori rushed towards Ulquiorra, his large body clattering as it made its way towards the Espada. His own Akatsuki robe had been torn to shreds and his wooden body was littered with scratch marks and scars, though it was apparent that neither Chiyo nor Kankuro had been able to land a decisive blow. Furthermore, it was obvious that this puppet was not Sasori, seeing as it was clearly made of wood and bone, and enhanced to a degree that would've made Szayel Apollo green with envy.

"Ulquiorra-san, that is Sasori's favorite puppet, Hiruko (Leech Child)." Chiyo explained, seeing Ulquiorra's confused narrowed eyes. She and Kankuro ran up behind the black-haired arrancar as to back him up. "Sasori controls the puppet from the inside."

"I see." Ulquiorra murmured.

Chiyo brandished both arms, opening her cloak and sending a volley of kunai at the huge puppet. Sasori deftly used Hiruko's large tail to deflect each one, ignoring the few that glanced off of the wood.

"You've been well, grandmother." A deep voice emanated out of the puppet. "Won't you accept my greeting?" Hiruko's left arm, a strange contraption consisting of a large gauntlet moved up his forearm with wooden cylinders jutting out of it at random intervals, shot out of its socket to land in front of Ulquiorra and between Kankuro and Chiyo.

"Dodge it! Each of Sasori's weapons contain poison!" Chiyo yelled. The arm began to rotate and it began to release the wooden cylinders. The cylinders then opened up, shooting out a volley of senbon. Chiyo, in a keen display of agility unbefitting of her age, dodged every last one. Kankuro brought out one of his puppets to take the blow for him. The poison on the senbon would only help later on if he decided to equip his own puppets with it. Ulquiorra simply stood there, flicking away a few that he decided were traveling too close to his face. The senbon skittered off of his pale skin, as if it had hit a wall of steel. None left so much as a mark on the unmarred skin, a testament to Ulquiorra's strength.

Chiyo would've stared in awe at the strange young man, but there was no time, not in the heat of the battle. "Kankuro!" she yelled. "Go!"

"Hai!" Kankuro said, brandishing two of his puppets on both of his hands, Karasu(Crow) and Sanshōuo (Salamander). He rushed at Hiruko, who, in retaliation, whipped his wooden tail at the Suna nin. Sanshouo rushed forward, the black metal shield on its back taking the brunt of the attack. Still though, the force of the blow caused the shield to be ripped from the handles that held it in the puppet's grasp. Kankuro smiled, just as planned. Just as the tail whipped backwards again, to strike then next blow at Kankuro's neck, it froze, unable to move.

"What?!" Sasori exclaimed. "It doesn't respond!"

"Now!" Chiyo yelled. Kankuro nodded and he sent Sanshouo to slam into Hiruko's body, denting it and cracking it in places just enough to inhibit the puppet's movement. The younger brother of Gaara then quickly sent Karasu to use each of its four arms to dislocate. The detached arms sprouted blades soaked in poison that promptly stabbed into the cracks in Hiruko.

Quickly, the top of Hiruko opened and a figure clad in black escaped from the doomed puppet. It lay in a crumpled heap away from the small confrontation that had just took place before it stood up to define the small form of a humans.

"Sasori?" Chiyo asked uncertainly. This nin was her only grandchild after all. Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Something wasn't right. His aura, his reiatsu...

It had not that certain spark that defined humans different than the empty hollows. It was dead.

"Very good grandmother." the figure said in a soft hiss. "You cleverly put chakra threads on Hiruko's tail, thin enough that I didn't even notice until its movement was hindered. Was it when you threw that volley of kunai at me? The threads on the ends of the kunai switched over to the tail at the moment of impact."

Chiyo let out a small smile, sad but proud. "Indeed... Even though I was suppressing the chakra as much as I could, you worked it out well."

The figure let out a small chuckle. It was an innocent enough sound, but it sent shivers down Kankuro's spine. The black-clad figure raised a hand to grasp the cowl of his cloak. "Well, of course... After all, it was none other than you that taught me to play with puppets..."

Chiyo's eyes lowered in shame and unhidden sadness. She let out a soft sigh. "...Yes... but we're done playing now..."

The figure began to raise his head and lifted his cowl, revealing his face.

(Sunagakure - Council room)

Baki held his head in his hands and sighed. It was always this way with the council. Stubborn bastards. Temari had arrived naught but an hour ago, way ahead of schedule, and he was tempted to send her after Team Kakashi, but he had chose to have her remain here. The council was in an uproar, and the person with the best grasp on politics among the Sand Siblings was Temari. He was well-versed himself, but facing a roomful of senile old farts would drive him mad. He raised his head when one of them brought up another issue.

"How long must we wait for Gaara to return?" one of the councilmen demanded. "The country is in distress, and the news of the Kazekage being abducted will not stay long inside Suna's walls. Sooner or later, the other villages will learn of it, and to have a kage of the Great Shinobi Villages captured by such scoundrels as the Akatsuki will not look good. Both to us and the others."

Another slammed his hands on the table. This one was younger, with a smoother face and a beard, but was no less incompetent. "That's not the main issue here! One of the ninja that took Gaara was "Sasori of the Red Sand"! If the other countries learn that our leader was taken by one of our own missing nin, we will disgraced. Made a mockery of!"

"We must swiftly elect a new Kazekage." another councilman interjected. This was seemed like the eldest of all, his wrinkled face creased further in worry. "The village is in need of a leader, and we must provide one for its stability."

Baki had had enough. "The time is not now to decide that Gaara is lost! Are we to give up on our Kazekage so easily? Where is your pride!?" Beside him, Temari fidgeted angrily. It always seemed this way, with the council denouncing Gaara, followed by herself and Baki defending him.

"It is not a matter of pride, Baki-san." the councilman replied. "It is a matter of the village and its prosperity. And perhaps..." The councilman's voice dropped to a low murmer. "Perhaps it would be better for the village if Gaara did not return at all."

Temari's gaze shot towards the offending councilman, unconsciously releasing a good amount of killing intent in her anger. "What are you inferring, councilman?" She said evenly, her green eyes flashing dangerously.

"Er, well. It is that Gaara hosts the Ichibi. He is an unstable monster." The councilman licked his lips and continued. "We believed that making him Kazekage would enable us to control him, but after the Chunin Exam three years ago, he seems to have become much more independent. And much more ambitious."

"He may go berserk again, like the incident when he was a boy. He is burden to our village." Another one said pompously from across the room, a safe distance away from the angered Temari. The coward. "He is unstable, so much so that his own father ordered his assassination. The young of the village may respect him, as they remain ignorant of his true nature, but most of the village still fear him. And for good reason. It is logical that we let him die and continue onwards."

Baki stood up and grabbed the offending councilman by the throat, all reason lost in his anger. "We are not Konoha nin." he snarled. "I don't know how your pampered civilian mind works, but we shinobi do not give up on one another, and never, _never_, leave them to die."

"Baki-sensei!" Temari's voice cut through the air like a whip. Baki flinched and loosened his hold on the arrogant councilman's throat, but didn't let go completely. "This is a place where the memories of the past Kazekage lie. This is a holy place. I understand your anger, Baki-sensei, but we have to try to maintain stability in the village." Her voice broke and for a moment her worry and vulnerability shone through. It was the look of a sister desperate to see her brother again, not that of a hardened warrior. "It's what Gaara would want."

Baki's eyes softened and he decided to move to Temari's shoulder to lay a comforting hand on instead of intimidating the councilman longer. He looked at the group of thoroughly cowed and guilty-looking men with a sense of satisfactions. Stupid they were, but even they would feel guilty at making a young girl almost cry. "We will have to trust Kankuro and Chiyo-sama then. I'm not sure of the capabilities of the pale man that claimed to know Gaara, but better him than Uchiha Sasuke."

Temari's eyes darkened in anger at the mention at the traitorous Uchiha that had killed Gaara's dearest friend. As she did so, the council broke into another uproar, how they made any decisions was a mystery to her.

"Are you telling me, Baki-san?" another council member said in an clipped tone, this one an old women. "That you allowed an unknown person into Sunagakure just because he said he knew Gaara? It was bad enough that we were forced to abide with Konoha's 'help'." she said, spitting out the last word with venom. "And now you take the help of a random stranger? You will make us the mockery of the Five Nations, Baki! Your heart has overthrown your mind!" she cried, dropping the respectful -san honorific in lieu of her anger.

Temari turned to Baki incredulously, who was standing behind her with his back straight, with a slight blush of embarrassment on his face. "Baki-sensei? Is this true?" she asked. Her brow furrowed in thought.

Baki coughed in embarrassment and redrew his composure. The flustered blush on his visage disappeared as his face hardened. "It is." he replied in a clipped tone. "We must put all available hands on the field and take all willing help in this distressed situation. The young man claimed to be a friend of Gaara and he was not lying, any of the guards outside the Kazekage's tower can testify, so who are we to stop him from helping? He is not allied to any village, so there is no need to negotiate a proper reward for his cooperation." he finished, his face a trifle smug now after his, in his opinion, impeccable explanation. "Is there a problem?" he added mildly

"I-Is there a problem?!" a councilman roared, completely forgetting all formalities. "You've completely forwent all protocol! This is a disgrace. You practically begged for help to a random stranger! If the other villages hear wind of this, especially Konoha, It'll be a disaster! You've gone too far Baki. We put you as head of the village in place of Gaara in hopes that you'd restore temporary peace, seeing how you're well known and respected in Suna, but here you've lost it! What could you have been thinking?! On top of all of that, this..."

The councilman rambled on and on about loss of protocol and the opprobrium in Suna's reputation, but Temari's mind was already wandering. Her brow furrowed in thought as she processed this new information. The pale man. Who was he? She and Kankuro had accompanied Gaara ever since they were kids, and there was nobody that fit the description that had given her. He was apparently strong enough to move faster than both the guards and Baki could see with their eyes, but had the chakra output of a mere civilian. What was she to make of that? And he claimed to have been a good enough friend of Gaara to risk his life going after two S-class criminals out of what looked like his good will. She didn't remember anyone, out of all her nineteen years alive, that Gaara considered a friend, save for Naruto, and the happy-go-lucky blond was dead. So who was this person? She stood up abruptly, silencing the cacophony that had risen in the council. Baki lifted the hand he had placed comfortingly on her shoulder in surprise at the sudden movement. She looked around at the bewildered expressions of the council members. "I'm leaving." she said. When she received coherent response from the council, she clarified. "To find Gaara."

The dissonance of the council raising their voices in argument arose again in earnest, protesting her departure. She nodded reassuringly at Baki, who had placed his head in his hands at the disharmony. He would be alone to face the wrath of the council, she realized with sympathy. Godspeed to him. She turned his back on the council, ignoring their demur. She tensed her legs and with a small hand seal, shunshinned away from the bickering fools. When she found her ground outside the Kazekage's tower, she let out a sigh of relief and took a deep breath of the arid desert air. Ah, that was better. She turned away again, and began to jump over the rooftops of Suna, looking for a few friends of hers, ones that would help in her little self-imposed mission to bring Gaara back and help the ones fighting for his protection.

'_Just hang on for a little longer, Gaara, Kankuro. I'll be there soon._'

0o0o0

(Outskirts of Kaze no Kuni - Unknown Cavern)

The figure lifted his head and removed the cowl that hid his physiognomy from view, revealing a head of vibrant red hair.

Sasori smirked. He looked nothing like what one would imagine an S-class criminal to look like. He was rather short, standing a good inch or two under Ulquiorra, who was under average height himself, and looked younger than Kankuro. He looked around fourteen or fifteen years old. "How have you been, Grandmother." he said in a soft, silky voice, a stark contrast to the gruff one he used while inside Hiruko. "It has been a while."

Chiyo didn't answer. Her face was twisted in shock and her eyes widened in disbelief. "I-impossible." she whispered. "All these years, and not a change on you. What have you done to yourself Sasori?"

"Only what puppeteers have dreamed of since the creation of our art, grandmother." the figure smiled, brandishing his unwrinkled, adolescent arms wide. "I have become immortal, unmarred by time. I have completed true art. Art of which that doesn't fade with time. Eternal, everlasting art."

There was silence as Kankuro and Chiyo were shocked speechless at the Akatsuki member's speech and Ulquiorra cleaned his nails, uninterested. Then a flock of birds screeched and landed right in front of the trio and promptly exploded.

(Cue Naruto Music - Reverse Situation)

Ulquiorra gave a little grimace and he quickly sonidoed in front of the blast to shield the unprepared duo of Suna puppeteers from a gory death. He gave a small wince as the explosion heated up his skin, reddening it slightly before the high-speed regeneration he had made it disappear almost a quickly as it appeared. He frowned slightly. That blast had gotten through his Hierro to do damage, however slight it was. Strange, sonido shortened, cero weakened, hierro diminished. What was going on? He was brought of his musing by a loud voice yelling with unconcealed animosity.

"Shut the hell up, ya pretty boy!" the voice cried. "You see that! True art is a single instant. The single fleeting moment before an EXPLOSION!"

Deidara stumbled out of the cloud of dust, coughing, but still hurling insults at his partner. He clutched his shoulder and the stump of left arm, which had been thoroughly cauterized by the raw energy of Ulquiorra's lance piercing it.

"Hn. Removing your arm to save your body from being consumed from your own explosion. A bold move. It would deserve a compliment if not for your foolish follow-up of revealing yourself. The wise thing to do would be to run away, and never show your face."

Deidara growled. "Shut up! What do you know?" He sent off a few more clay beetles, which scuttled a few inches before digging into the hard rock of the cave.

Ulquiorra scoffed and jumped into the air before standing on it as if it were a solid surface. He closed his eyes and send out his Pesquisa to locate the various mines that Deidara had sent out. At the same moment, Chiyo unraveled a scroll that she had on her person. With a poof, two puppets materialized next to the old women. One puppet had the appearance of a young women with dark brown hair and the other a man that had dark red hair, a hue that matched Sasori's own.

Sasori raised an eyebrow in slight interest "Is that.."

Chiyo nodded, her wrinkled face creasing with a mixture of pride and sorrow. "It is. Your first puppets: the Mother and the Father. Do you remember them?"

Sasori cocked his head and his brow furrowed slightly, a rare sign of emotion.

0o0o0

(Reverse Situation fades into Background - Cue Grief and Sorrow)

_A little boy lifted both hands, sending out thin strings of chakra that attached themselves to fallen mounds near the boy's feet. With a wooden clatter, the two piles straightened themselves up into a kneeling position, revealing themselves to be puppets. One was a beautiful young woman and the a broad-jawed man. The boy twitched his fingers slightly and the puppets turned to give a smile at their young master. The little boy smiled back. _

_"Mother. Father." he said, turning to each one turn. It was as if they had never left, never forsaken him, never left him alone. He tugged his middle and pinky fingers in slightly and the two puppets shuffled forward to hold him in an embrace. Their skin was hard, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that his parents were hugging him. He raised his hands to cross over his chest as if to hug himself, and his parents moved closer, as if to show their support. The little boy closed his eyes and smiled. In his joy, he forgot to maintain his chakra strings. They flickered slightly and snapped._

_With a clattering crash that resounded across his empty room, the puppets collapsed again into an unrecognizable heap, their heads lolling lifelessly to the side. The boy looked down at his parents, no, not his parents. His parents were dead, he reminded himself. They weren't coming back. These were just puppets, tools that he used. The red-haired boy's eyes grew cold as he stared at the prone bodies of his puppets. _

_They held no love for him._

0o0o0

(Resume Naruto Music - Reverse Situation)

"No." Sasori replied smoothly. "They are just puppets, and rather second-rate ones." He smirked, and reached into his cloak to withdraw a scroll. With a rather unnecessary flourish, he flicked open the scroll. There was a small puff of smoke that was characteristic of an unsealing and out of the cloud clattered out a humanoid puppet. "This, is a real puppet. A masterpiece."

Chiyo gasped and Kankuro gritted his teeth in anger. Even Ulquiorra and Deidara were taken aback by the sudden killing intent leaking out of the two Suna ninja. "Y-you monster." Kankuro growled.

Sasori laughed softly, a sound that chilled the bones. "Ah yes, this puppet used to mean something to you, didn't it? It was the Sandaime Kazekage when I was still living." He tapped the bridge of the puppet's nose with his knuckle uncaringly. "Now, it's just my tool, my weapon."

"Argh!" Kankuro, driven by rage at the blatant lack of respect to the deceased kage, rushed at the Akatsuki. He swung his hand, sending a volley of shuriken careening towards Sasori. The former Suna nin smirked and twitched a finger, causing the puppet to intercept the projectiles with its own body. Kankuro let out a strangled yell and drew his fist back, intent on wiping the smirk off the infuriating man's face, when Deidara stepped in front him, catching the young shinobi's fist with ease.

"Oh man, boya, you puppeteers sure are weak, no wonder you hide behind those hunks of wood, yeah." He shoved his free hand in front of Kankuro's face. The mouth on his palm writhed, and Kankuro leaned backwards in disgust, but Deidara tightened his grip on the warpainted shinobi. "Hey now, don't be so worked up, I'm just showing you my art." The blonde missing nin's smirk widened to an almost grotesque degree as the mouth on his palm vomited out a small spider. Kankuro's eyes widened.

"Boom."

The clay arachnid exploded with a small boom and Kankuro stumbled out of the firestorm with a strangled yell, clutching his face. His two puppets, Karasu and Sanshouo, fell to the ground in a heap as Kankuro released the hold he had on his puppets in his pain. "Kankuro!" Chiyo yelled, running to the younger puppeteer's side. "Are you alright?!"

Kankuro raised his head with a grimace. Every part of his skin was red with burns, and skin on the right side of his face had peeled to reveal the blood underneath. Though the injury wasn't deep enough to reach the bone, it was still grievous. Chiyo let out a gasp. Without an advanced medical nin nearby, Kankuro's face would be scarred.

Ulquiorra's gaze shifted to stare at Kankuro's burn. The hollow stared coldly down for no more than a moment before averting his gaze to stare at the two Akatsuki members again. Chiyo gritted her teeth at the blatant lack of concern for the Suna nin, but she knew there was nothing she could do to the pale enigma. She let out a small growl and began to apply a basic ointment to the charred skin, turning her back to the fight. As wicked as the pale one seemed, he seemed to hate the Akatsuki more than he did them. He would protect them to a certain degree.

Deidara burst into laughter. "You don't even care for your companion? That's cold, yeah." He jerked a thumb towards Sasori, "I hate this bastard, but at least we know to work together when it counts yeah."

Ulquiorra's gaze shifted to the writhing Kankuro before meeting Deidara's smirking one. "Companion? You misunderstand. I have no need for... companions." he spat out with a venom that surprised even himself.

Rather than continue is chat with Ulquiorra, Deidara's sneer widened and he held up a hand sign to Sasori, who nodded his understanding, but before they could finish their move Ulquiorra sonidoed behind the two of them.

"After all, when I needed them most, they did nothing but forsake me." he whispered behind them, raising a two finger, each one aimed an Akatsuki member. "Bala."

A burst of emerald reiatsu shot out of Ulquiorra's fingertips, barreling towards each of the missing nin. They hit the two point-blank in the small of their back. Deidara hissed as he felt his back begin to char, not unlike the injury he had inflicted on Kankuro.

The two Akatsuki members flipped around to face the hollow. Sasori flicked his arms away from him, causing the Sandaime Hokage puppet to creak open its mouth and let out another mass of iron powder. On top of that, the left side of his chest hissed and popped open to hold some sort of magnet. It was obviously what Sasori was using to control the iron sand. The magnetic powder all formed itself into a hollow cylinder pointed at Ulquiorra, who raised an eyebrow in mild interest. Sasori gritted his teeth and flickered his fingers back and forth. In response to his actions, the puppet pilled on more and more sand, reinforcing the cylinder and compressing it while keeping it the same size.

When the preparations were finished, Deidara clasped both of his hands together, allowing the mouths on his palms to do their magic. With a faint retching sound, the orifices coughed out a faintly humanoid doll. This one was triangular in shape and had its arms crossed over the length of its body. Unlike the other bombs that Deidara had shown thus far, this one didn't move. Deidara let out a small chuckle and shoved the doll into the makeshift cannon that Sasori had made with his puppet. The Kazekage puppet immediately sealed the opening facing them, leaving the only other one to face Ulquiorra. The pale hollow let out a small, disappointed sigh. He had expected more really. It was obvious what they were going to do, and the time it took to prepare was woefully inadequate.

Deidara spread his arms out and cried. "C-3, Katsu!"

At the same time, Ulquiorra raised a single finger towards the duo. "Cero."

There was a rumbling sound as the condensed explosion made itself out in the form of some sort of laser, careening towards the Espada's slight frame. (Not realistic, but this is Naruto. Believe it.) Ulquiorra closed his emerald eyes and he released his own flare. The beryl shaft of light crashed into the fiery red beam of the condensed explosion.

There was a resounding crash and all of Ulquiorra's vision was flooded with a light orange, before that too was swallowed up the dense cloud of dust that obscured everyone's vision.

0o0o0

(Outskirts of Kaze no Kuni - Forests near the Leaf)

Temari jerked her head to the left when she heard a thundering boom to her left, near the mountainside she had just passed. She held out a hand, and her small team of ragtag jonin and chunin stopped at her command. The eldest of the Sand siblings turned just in time to see the remnants of the beam of light that had pierced straight through the mountain thin and disappear.

"W-what was that?" a jonin behind her stammered. The power behind that attack was immense, it was no wonder the girl was shaken. She herself had only been promoted a week ago.

Temari's brows creased in worry. "I don't know Maki, but I'll bet that Gaara's somewhere over there."

"Well then, what're we waitin' for!" one of the jonin, Reki, shouted. "Let's get a move one."

"Well said." Temari replied, and shot off towards the ruined peak and was quickly followed by the rest of the team. As she ran, she unconsciously clutched her chest. '_I hope you're alright, Gaara, Kankuro. I have a bad feeling.'_

0o0o0

(Outskirts of Kaze no Kuni - Unknown Cavern)

The hollow was filled with dust and debris floating around, cast aloft by the might of the two blows, obscuring the view of everyone in the cavern. It was truly the clash of the titans. But even through the darkness that hung in the air, a shaft of light shone down into the cave from a vaguely circular orifice in the ceiling, no doubt caused by one of the attacks.

"Yeah!" Deidara's disembodied voice shouted out of the cloud of dust and smoke that hung in the air. "I told you we could win, Sasori no Danna (Master Sasori)! It's all because of my Isshun no Geijutsu (Art of a Single Moment)! There's even a hole in the ceiling, yeah!"

"I couldn't care less about your art, Deidara. Quiet down, or the pale one will be able to locate you."

There was a small hiss, almost serpentine in nature, and Deidara swore he heard someone smile. He could make out a small light in the distance, obscured by the fog around him.

"Too late."

Deidara swung around at the voice behind him, but there was no escaping his fate. He heard a wet squelch and stopped cold. He slowly lowered his face and looked at his chest, at the hand protruding out of his sternum. It was soaked crimson in his blood, no longer a bleached white. "Shit." And he didn't even get to use his big explosions.

"Indeed. This is goodbye. It was nice, Deidara." Ulquiorra tensed his wrist, causing Deidara to hack up more blood, staining his dark Akatsuki cloak, or what was left of it. "Now, disappear, in a single moment. Cero Oscuras (Spanish for "Dark Zero", Japanese for "Black Hollow Flash").

The hand impaling Deidara glowed a malevolent black, before exploding outwards in a flash of reiatsu hellfire. As he felt his body begin to disintegrate away, the blonde Akatsuki member closed his eyes in resignation. Before the last vestiges of his conscious was eaten up by the black storm, the last thing he heard was a chilling, dispassionate voice intone,

"Well Deidara, Art... is an explosion."

And the last vestiges of the Iwa-nin's body was lost in the fire that was Ulquiorra's cero.

Sasori let out a gasp at the man, the monster, that had so easily dispatched of Deidara. The blonde shinobi was his junior, but he was by no means a weak ninja. He was an S-class nin, after all. But this man had killed him with ease. The red haired nuke nin scrabbled backwards, controlling his Kazekage puppet to move in front of him in a desperate attempt for safety.

"Don't think that you can beat me just because you beat Deidara." he snarled. "We did, after all, cause that hole in the ceiling."

Ulquiorra nodded, as if in deep thought, before disappearing in a burst of static. He reappeared in front of Sasori and slammed his clawed fingertips at the young shinobi's left chest, his heart. There was no blood, interestingly enough, and the boy collapsed as if his strings had been cut. Intriguing. Ulquiorra knelt down in front of the collapsed body and unzipped the Akatsuki robe that concealed Sasori's body from view, confident his hierro would be able to withstand any counterattack. His eyes widened minutely before settling back into his normal emotionless green.

There was nothing but a puppet. Sasori had turned himself into a puppet, and a rather impressive one. Every part of his body had become wood, and his stomach had been hollowed out to contain a rope of steel that was capped on the end with a blade. The left side the puppet's chest had a gaping circular hole in it. It was too convenient. Ulquiorra whirled around to find another Sasori puppet, clad in a maroon cloak, rushing towards him with its left arm cocked back, the second joint replaced by a blade dripping with poison. This puppet had a cylindrical container jutting from the middle of his chest, the same size as the hole in the other, discarded puppet.

The blanched arrancar leaned back on his heels allowing the blade to pass harmlessly past his face. He summoned another lance of reiatsu in his hand and prepared to shoot down the rogue Suna-nin when he felt two blurs brush past him, lunging at the Sasori-faced puppet, which had begun to turn as to charge at Ulquiorra again. The puppet's eyes widened, a bastardization of the human emotion of surprise, and began to put his hands up in retaliation. Then stopped. The puppet's lips turned upwards in a resigned smile so full of emotion that it could've passed as human.

There was a jet of blood as the twin swords wielded respectively by the Mother and Father pierced the puppet made in Sasori's likeness, impaling him from the side until it jutted out from his chest, stabbing the cylindrical container protruding from the center of his chest. The puppet let out a shaky breath, and all tension went out of its body.

(Cue Naruto Music - Experienced Many Battles. [Just keep replaying. Great song])

It made a twisted sight. If not for the swords and crimson cruor staining the three puppets, it would've the peaceful sight of two parents embracing their child. Instead, it was the gruesome image of a father and mother slaughtering their own flesh and blood. Sasori smiled wanly, "Well done, Grandmother. I'd not thought you one to have the heart to do this."

"In the end, you were careless Sasori." Chiyo gritted her teeth and clenched her fist in anger and sorrow. "This wasn't what I wanted. Why did you have to flee from the village? I could've brought back your parents."

Sasori was silent for a moment, before chuckling weakly. "Pathetic. When did you start becoming senile and sentimental, Grandmother?"

"It's true. In exchange for my life, I could bring back another. I could even breath life to a puppet." Her enraged expression gave way to one that was softer, sadder. "But now... Now it's an impossible dream. You're right, I am pathetic."

Ulquiorra, who had watched the proceeding between grandmother and grandson silently, reluctant to interfere in a matter of familial distress, spoke up. "Not so. You fought with bravery, and with a heart befitting of a shinobi, and yet, soaked in the lifeblood of your own bloodline, you haven't forgotten your heart. You are not pathetic, Chiyo-dono," the Espada said softly, adding the respectful honorific that signified status of a lord.

Chiyo gave a small start at the soft, alto voice of the Espada, and Sasori stared silently. Ulquiorra looked to each one in turn, and seeing that he commanded the attention of both, he continued. "On the contrary, it is the red-haired one that evokes my pity, if I had any." Ulquiorra gestured towards the two puppets that held Sasori still. "Fearing death, fearing loneliness, you created puppets to sate your solitude, and when they weren't enough to ease your troubled heart, you buried your own heart, locked it away, and turned yourself into a puppet. Pathetic."

Sasori, who had listened to the proceedings with an empty face snapped at the jab at his honor. His ashen face contorted in rage and he screamed, "What do you know?! A puppet is unchanging, it is immortal. I can be rebuilt a hundred times, a thousand times, over and over. It doesn't feel death, and has no need of companions. Its heart can't be broken, for it doesn't have one. Can anything else say the same?! Can anything else be immune to death?! What do you know?! Have you felt the pain of having everything wrenched away from you in a single moment? Have you felt the pain of death as it creeps up on you, breathing its cold breath? HAVE YOU?!"

Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed in anger and he promptly punched Sasori, cutting of the puppet's rant, leaving nothing but a cracked hole where its cheek had been. "Do not patronize me, human. I have felt the pain of being alone a thousand times over, the coldness of death every waking moment." The Espada released his Resurreccion, sifting back into his Arrancar form, his blanched robe disintegrating into flakes of reiatsu that solidified to form the familiar form of his katana and revealing the normal white tunic he wore. He unzipped his jacket free, revealing his hollow hole. Chiyo gasped in surprise, and even Sasori's mouth opened in surprise.

Kankuro, who had been silently watching from the distance, opened his one good eye wide in suspicion. If he had been skeptical at first, this dispelled all of his doubts. He had put the hole on Ulquiorra's chest as nothing more than a by-product of his powers, and a merely cosmetic effect designed to induce fear in his enemies. But now, Ulquiorra had the hole, transformation or not. The middle Suna sibling narrowed his eyes. He would see this till the end.

Ignoring the surprised sounds from his audience, Ulquiorra gingerly touched the orifice on his chest. "You ask if there is anything like a puppet, an organism that has no need for a heart. There is. I have seen death, puppeteer, and walk with it daily. You though, you are still young. You still have a heart, however deep it is hidden. Cherish it, Sasori." Ulquiorra said, for the first time calling the Akatsuki member by his given name. "A heart is a precious thing, something that gives one the spark of life, separates it from the dead. It had great power, power enough to bring the dead back, to bring about change. Do not discard your heart, as I did, and perhaps, one day, you will feel your parent's embrace again."

Ulquiorra raised a finger at the defeated Sasori, who had been rendered speechless by the pale Espada's monologue. "Goodbye, Sasori. Perhaps we will on better terms next time. Cero."

The pale ray of emerald light enveloped Sasori and the puppets of the Mother and the Father. Sasori let out a resigned sigh and smiled, before he was completely engulfed by the beam of reiatsu.

Ulquiorra spun on his heels, sparing not a glance at the damage he had done to the cavern and strode past a thunderstruck Chiyo to Kankuro, briskly zipping closed his jacket. He stopped in front of Kankuro, who scrabbled backwards in fear, ignoring the sharp stabs of pain he felt from jolting his injuries. Ulquiorra knelt in front of him, and touched Kankuro's face, ignoring the Suna-nin's protests.

"Chosoku Saisei (High Speed Regeneration)."

With no warning except for a small yell of surprise from Kankuro, the burn on the puppeteer's face began to lighten to a small pink, before healing back into the rough tanned that the Suna-nin had before getting injured. "H-how did you? W-who are you?" Kankuro stammared, clutching his completely healed face. "Naruto?" he whispered, as if raising his voice would cause the arrancar to vanish.

Ulquiorra ignored him and stood up, shifting his gaze to the prone form of Gaara who had not been damaged throughout the whole battle, though a fair amount of dust had settled on the Kazekage's frame, coloring him a mottled gray. Ulquiorra gently picked him up, an act uncharacteristic of his cold demeanor, and slowly began to move outside the ruined cave. Chiyo and Kankuro exchanged a furtive glance and quickly scrambled to follow the stoic Espada.

It was warm outside, with the hot desert sun beating a soothing pulse of heat on the pale arrancars cold back. It angered him, although he didn't let his ire show. How dare the weather be so, so happy. His friend, his brother had died, and yet the climate of this god-forsaken place was bright and happy. Ulquiorra knew it was unrealistic, but he wished the weather would change to a melancholy rain, or at the very least the desolate night of Hueco Mundo. He let out a heavy sigh. _I should have been faster. Kami warned me, but I still couldn't save my only friend. Damn. A thousand years, and I still lack the power to protect. What would you have done, Kurosaki?_

"What will you do now, Ulquiorra-dono?" Chiyo asked, purposely adding the -dono honorific to Ulquiorra's name in deference to the fellow that had calmed Sasori's heart, in the end.

Ulquiorra ignored her and gently laid Gaara on the soft grass, laying his head gently on a smooth stone. The small remnants of Ulquiorra's more human emotions-sorrow, regret, guilt- wrenched painfully in his chest. It was as if he was only sleeping. But there was no waking from death.

"Chiyo-dono." Ulquiorra answered, and Chiyo looked up to stare at the raven-haired Espada in question. "You noticed, didn't you, at the end. Sasori."

Chiyo nodded slowly. "I did. The boy... he wanted to die. He could've easily evaded my attack, but chose not to instead," she said carefully, unwilling to let her voice waver. As it was, it still managed to crack with emotion. "Foolish boy. Foolish, foolish." Chiyo sniffled and brought up her hand to scrub rigorously at her eyes, furiously wiping the tears that obscured her vision.

Ulquiorra stared blankly at Gaara's corpse, and he knelt down to gently finger over his brother's heart, feeling for a pulse. Anything.

There was nothing.

Ulquiorra felt bile rise up in his throat. It hurt. It hurt so much. He was unused to this feeling of loss. Uzumaki Naruto was well-aware and walked alongside pain for his whole life, but Ulquiorra Cifer had locked that part of him away and felt nothing. But now, now things were different. Through some twisted joke, the two halves of Ulquiorra's soul had been recombined, but in a shoddy, incomplete manner. For the first time in thousands of years, Ulquiorra felt pain. His union with Uzumaki Naruto had given him some measure of his emotions back, allowing him the simplest, anger, but the feeling of loss, of pain, was unknown, and Ulquiorra didn't know how to react. So he lashed out.

"Tell me, Chiyo." Ulquiorra murmured coldly, dropping the customary honorifics he had begun to add. "What's to stop me from slaughtering you like I did the two Akatsuki members."

Chiyo raised her tear-streaked face in surprise, brought out of her mourning of her grandson and her leader. "W-what?"

"Do not make me repeat myself. Why shouldn't I kill you right here, right now? This is your fault, is it not? Had your people not put Shukaku inside Gaara, then none of this would have passed." Ulquiorra said. As he spoke, his voice began to lower in tone and in sound but became no less sharp and cutting.

"Did any of you try to ask Gaara how he felt?" Ulquiorra's hand began to shake in his anger, and he laid another on top of it to stop the vibrations. "What is a "Jinchuriki (Power of Human Sacrifice) in the first place? Is it more than a word you ninjas arrogantly created to justify the ruining of someone's life?" Ulquiorra turned away, unable to bear the sight of the youngest Suna sibling lying there anymore. "What's the use? A thousand years, and I can't save anyone. Haku, Sasuke, Orihime, Hinata. And now Gaara.

ARGH!" In a sudden fit of rage, Ulquiorra lashed out, slamming his fist into the side of a tree, destroying it and the twenty surrounding it in his fury. In his rage, he missed Chiyo as she dried her tears and set her jaw in determination. He missed how she knelt down at Gaara's side and placed her hands gingerly at his side. She took a deep breath.

"Ah! What the hell!? What idiot just plows down a tree when someone's on it?!" A loud voice cut through the air, breaking Chiyo's concentration and Ulquiorra's furor. Temari jumped out of the wreckage of foliage, followed closely by a large band of Suna nin. It seemed that since Temari's departure, several others had followed. Baki had managed to convince the council.

"S-sister!" Kankuro shouted, running to her.

"Kankuro! Thank God you're safe! I was so worried, especially when that burst of black light came out of the mountain." she said, embracing her tightly in her worry. Ulquiorra coughed lightly, and would've began preening himself if the situation was not so grave. "Wait! What about Gaara?"

Kankuro's eyes darkened and he hung his head, allowing dark shadows to be cast over his face. "I-I'm sorry."

Temari's eyes widened as she noticed Gaara's prone body behind Kankuro's frame. "No." she whispered. "No! No No No! NO!" She got down on her knees and began to cup Gaara's face gently with her hands. "Wake up, Gaara. Come on, you'll let Shukaku take control. Come on. Don't play with me like this." she cried, tears streaming down her normally composed face.

But Gaara didn't answer.

Chiyo gently pushed her aside. "Peace." She raised her hands onto Gaara's side again, and this time Ulquiorra took notice. He activated his Pesquisa and raised an eyebrow at the peculiar reiatsu flow.

"That technique..."

"Yes. This is the Kishu Tensei (One's Own Life Reincarnation). This is still a prototype, so there is only a small chance of it succeeding." she admitted. She soon grimaced though and her hands began to shake, losing the ethereal glow it was emitting. "I don't have enough." she growled, gritting her teeth in frustration.

Ulquiorra moved forward and placed his own hands on top of hers. "Take as much as you need." he said, his normally distant eyes hardening with determination.

Chiyo stared at him and continued her ritual. "I am glad someone like you appeared in this twisted world that we shinobi created. Someone who can bring change. So please, the Sand and the Leaf, their futures differ from our past. Please, take care of Gaara."

Ulquiorra frowned. His vision danced and his breath became pants. This jutsu was taxing. What Chiyo was doing wasn't an ordinary jutsu. She gave up the whole of her chakra in an attempt to revive Gaara. Not only that, but she was tapping into her locked reserves, the store of chakra that was sealed away behind her gates to keep her body functioning. Because of this, her physical energy far outstripped her spiritual; so much so that she wasn't able to commit the whole of her chakra, as chakra was the combination of the two energies. And Ulquiorra was the perfect balancer, whether he knew it or not. His spiritual energy, reiatsu, far transcended his physical, and would match up with her physical without much of a hitch. But still, who knew that hobbly old woman had such reserves of physical energy, especially if it could take a big chunk of his own reserves. Granted, he had wasted a lot teaching those Akatsuki a lesson.

"No, Gaara can stand on his own two feet. He is strong, do not underestimate him. " Ulquiorra let out a laugh as his vision began to swim. "But nevertheless, I will aid him. That's what friends are for."

Chiyo tittered weakly. "That cold exterior... actually hides a warm heart doesn't it? I was so angry when you refused to heal Kankuro, when you claimed companions weren't worth anything. But that was a lie, wasn't it? You just don't know how to express yourself."

"Nonsense." Ulquiorra deadpanned.

Chiyo burst out into dry, hacking laughter. "Well then, to the well organized mind, death is but another adventure. Perhaps it's time to visit it."

And Chiyo closed his eyes and fell to the ground with a dull thud, breathing her last.

0o0o0

(Cue Bleach Music - Never Meant to Belong)

_A little boy crouched on the ground, drawing circles into the hard dirt beneath his feet. There was no one around him, but that was alright. He had no tears to spill anyway. The boy looked up to see a similar boy a few dozen yards away, rubbing his eyes as he attempted to still his tears. This other boy was alone too. The little red-haired boy stood up and dusted off his legs to go comfort the other boy; perhaps the two could become friends. He looked up and gave his best attempt at a smile, which probably ended up as a grimace._

_And froze._

_When he looked up, the boy had gained some followers. Surrounding him was were two men and two children his age. One adult was rather plain looking, apart from the long scar on his face, and the other had silver hair and a dull expression, but it was obvious, even to him, that the two cared for the little blond boy. His child companions were similar. The raven-haired one looked away and sniffed disdainfully and the pinkette looked rather angry at him, but they too cared for the blond one. The redheaded boy hesitated and smiled. Maybe they could be his friends too. He took another step._

_And froze._

_The blond one had gained still more followers. At least twenty more had joined the blond boy, who was smiling now with his eyes closed, giving him a distinct vulpine look. Among them were a big-breasted blond, a shy-looking one, an eccentric looking one in a jumpsuit, among others. _

_The small boy grit his teeth and turned around angrily. He thought he had found someone that he could understand, someone to sympathize with, but it seemed he was wrong. The boy took another step away from the happy scene and crouched down on the ground again. The only person he could trust really was only himself._

_But the nagging sensation didn't leave him. Despite how much he denied it, the boy wanted companions of his own, so he surreptitiously turned around. _

_The blond boy was alone again. All his companions had left and was gather around some sort of memorial, and the boy with bright, blue eyes was alone again. Before his very eyes, the blond boy began to disintegrate away, piece by piece, until nothing was left._

_A gentle tap on the redhead's shoulder caused him to whirl back front to face the offender. There were two. One was an old woman whose eyes twinkled with an inexplicable joy that only the elderly seemed to understand; The other was a boy his age. This one was unnerving, with his lanky frame and cold, emerald eyes that seemed to stare into his soul. But what was most unnerving was the hole in his chest, that no one else but the redheaded boy and the green eyed boy seemed to notice. He extended his hand as well, and though his cold expression did not change, he exuded kindness. The redheaded boy with the gourd on his back accepted it gratefully._

_The raven-haired boy smiled minutely and said, "Don't be sad, Gaara. You have friends, just turn around."_

_Gaara began to turn around before turning to ask another question, but found nothing there but the cold barren landscape. He turned back around and the world faded to white._

0o0o0

Gaara woke up in his brothers arms. "Kankuro?" he asked weakly.

"Yeah, Gaara. It's me." Kankuro said with as much happiness as he could muster, though the sacrifices needed to bring Gaara back put quite the damper on his joy.

Gaara realized that he wasn't the only one there and his eyes widened at the large crowd that gathered around him. He stared around in wonder. "...This..." he breathed.

Kankuro squeezed Gaara's shoulder in reassurance and grinned. "Everyone came running to save you!" he said. "Hey, you put us through a lot, bro."

A Suna kunoichi called Matsuri butt in, "Ano, Kankuro-san. Gaara-sama is the Kazekage, so I think you should show some more respect."

Kankuro looked scandalized at being told off by the soft-spoken Matsuri, but his lips softened in a smile as the surrounding ninja's began to chuckle. "Gaara-sama, do you feel well?" she asked worriedly.

Gaara didn't answer, but instead attempted to stand, but stopped as a lance of pain shocked through his leg and up his spine. "Guh.." he groaned involuntarily.

"Ah! Please, don't strain yourself, Gaara-sama! Your body's not back to full health yet."

In the background, a chunin began to sniffle at the scene. "T-this is great... I was worried that the Kazekage would really die..."

"Hey!" A kunoichi yelled, harshly smacking him in the back of the head. "Gaara-sama'd never die that easily!"

As the rabble began to rise in pitch and intensity as the surrounding people began to celebrate the Kazekage's rescue, Gaara turned his head to thank his brother. "Thank you, Kankuro. For saving me."

Kankuro's eyes darkened again. "No... Don't thank me. Thank Temari, Chiyo-sama, and Ulquiorra."

Gaara's non-existent eyebrows furrowed together. "Who?"

"You mean you never heard of him? He said that he was a close friend of yours and managed to defeat both Akatsuki members before offering his life to bring back yours. Speaking of him, he was right... Where'd he go?" Kankuro asked, whipping his head back and forth to search the crowd. The pale enigma had vanished.

Gaara nodded thoughtfully and racked his brain, but nobody came to mind. The only person that would give their life for him would probably be Naruto, but he was... Gaara ruthlessly severed that train of though. He simply shook his head at Kankuro, who shrugged back.

"Well, it was Chiyo-sama's Kishu Tensei that brought you back to life, at the cost of her own life." Kankuro said, his tone growing solemn once more.

Gaara grimaced and managed to stand. He began making his way over to Chiyo's fallen body, which was being propped up by an elder named Ebizo. The crowd grew silent as the Kazekage shuffled over to the dead puppet master.

"'I'm just playing dead.' I keep expecting her to laugh out loud and say that... Hmm..." Ebizo, Chiyo's younger brother said softly. "Such a peaceful expression she has now."

"...Yea..."Gaara said. The kage looked away as Ebizo swung his gaze towards him.

"He was amazing." Kankuro said, interrupting Ebizo before the elder even began. "Ulquiorra, I mean. He was cold as ice, but he truly did care for you and me, Gaara. He had the amazing ability to instill change. Chiyo-sama was always going on about how she didn't care about the future, remember? She isn't someone who would do this, but that Ulquiorra guy changed her whole perspective. He was a lot like Naruto in that respect, you know."

"Yes... Chiyo-sama and this Ulquiorra fellow entrusted the future to you, Gaara-sama... It was a fitting last moment for a shinobi."

Gaara closed his eyes in pain. "..Yes...A lot like Naruto's final moment." he murmured. "Wait. Kankuro, do you know where Temari is? I would've thought she would be here.

Kankuro's tentative smile widened and he pointed to the edge of the crowd, where Temari was weeping.

"I... I see..." Gaara said, taken aback by her normally collected sister's sobbing. "Ah, Temari..."

Said kunoichi threw her arms around Gaara, stopping his apology before it even began. "Don't ever do that to me again. I was so worried, you idiot." she sniffled.

Kankuro smiled happily at the tender scene, before freezing and pointing to it while staring pointedly at Matsuri. _'What happened to showing respect?'_

Matsuri shrugged. '_I like Temari-sama better than you.'_

Kankuro was scandalized.

Gaara stood up shakily, being supported by his two siblings. The clearing fell silent as the Kazekage raised his voice.

"Everyone. Let's say our prayers to Chiyo-sama."

0o0o0

Ulquiorra smiled and turned around from his spot above the ruins of the mountain, turning his back away from the scene of tens of shinobi silently paying their respects to Chiyo.

_'Are you sure you just want to leave like that? I'm sure Gaara would've been happy to see you.'_ a voice whispered in his head.

'Of course. Gaara doesn't know me. He doesn't know Ulquiorra Cifer, and Uzumaki Naruto is just a voice in my head.'

'Hey!'

'Let's go, I have to visit Konoha.'

'Oh, getting down and dirty are we?! Let's say hi to the gang.'

'No.'

'What?!'

Cutting off his thoughts, Ulquiorra silently flashed away, leaving nothing but a small plume of dust.

0o0o0

(Hours later - Unknown Cavern)

"Argh! Who knew prying open that cave to find Sasori and Deidara would be such a pain." A petulant voice whined throughout that cavern.

"**Don't whine. We've just come to confirm what Leader-sama wants.**" A darker voice intoned.

"Ahaha, Zetsu-sempai is talking to himself again! And he calls Tobi the crazy one." a childish voice said, joining the fray.

Zetsu poked his head out of the ground, growing out of it like some demented plant. "So this is Sasori's real body."

"**Yes, and Deidara seems to be nothing more than a pile of ash. Either that, or he's ran away.**"

The second member of the group jumped away from the self-bickering plantman and began searching the ground. This member was clad in what looked like black armor and a ebony scarf. His face was obscured by an orange spiral patterned mask with only the right hole showing. "Eh... Tobi can't find Deidara-sempai's ring. But Tobi wants to be part of Bakatsuki too..."

Both sides of Zetsu let out a sigh. "**I really **wish would wouldn't** do that Tobi... Why does **someone like you** act like an **idiot and make fun** of the own organization **they control**? Bakatsuki? **That's just unoriginal." Both sides of Zetsu said, alternating words.

Tobi, of course, promptly ignored them. "Ah! I found the ring!" He held up the small bang of stone up high in a mock victory pose. "Can Tobi join now? Tobi is a..."

"...very good boy, I know." Zetsu finished. "Can we go now?"

"Ah! Tobi dropped the ring! Oh no!"

_"_**Tell me, me. Why do we follow this guy?**"

"Shut up, just shut up."

"Tobi's arm isn't long enough. Ugwaa, Tobi's not a good boy..."

0o0o0

(Sunagakure - Kazekage's Quarters)

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR SEVERING TIES WITH KONOHAGAKURE!?"

Gaara interlaced his fingers together and placed his elbows on his desk, covering the bottom of his face with his hands. "Just as I said, Uchiha. I am quitting the treaty between us. Part of the treaty was to aid members of the other village when requested help, and you failed to do that. When I was taken, you left just after as Ulquiorra-san and Chiyo-sama did, but arrived far later than Temari's group, which left hours after your group. You failed your duty, and I am within my rights to sever the treaty."

Sasuke cut off his rant and curled his hands into fists, ignoring the blood that welled up in the cuts he was making in his palms and glowered silently. Sakura brought her hands up to her face, wringing them open and closed in worry. She wanted to pummel the redhead in front of her, but that would only make the situation worse. Kakashi was the voice of reason.

"Please Kazekage-sama. It was one infraction."

"It was my life." Gaara shot back coldly.

"And we apologize sincerely." the Cyclops Jonin said without missing a beat. "It's just that, what about your ties to the Leaf? You have companions there. What will happen to them without your protection."

Gaara was silent. He knew Kakashi wasn't the type to blackmail. The silver haired Jonin was despicable, but he had some honor. "I.. will continue the treaty..." Gaara started, gazing cynically at the sighs of relief that erupted from Sakura and Kakashi. "But only with following people. I will write a list." he finished.

And like that, the tension was back in the air.

"But..." Kakashi started.

"Now get out. I am weary, and I must find some way to reward this Ulquiorra fellow for saving my life. Rest assured, your names, Hatake, Uchiha, and Haruno, will not be on the list of people I allow in Suna. Sai, your name was? I will not judge you yet, but associating with Team seven certainly doesn't give you any... brownie points."

Sai nodded, leaving no emotion, though inside his mind was racing. Danzo-sama would have to know of this immediately. He would be most pleased. The Uchiha was always a wild card, and having him confined to Konoha's walls would be a great asset. And there was also the matter of the pale enigma that had approached them earlier that day.

"But Kazekage-sama...!"

"Get out. Temari, show them out of my office."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama."

Sasuke roughly shoved Temari's helping hand away from him and angrily stalked out of the door. '_Damnit, I'll show you. Insulting me, the great and only Uchiha. I'll make you regret it, Ulquiorra. Making a fool out of me.'_ he vowed silently as he began to brood.

_I'll make you pay._

0o0o0

(The Gates of Konohagakure - Hi no Kuni)

Ulquiorra walked in front of the entrance to the gate, shrugging slightly in annoyance as he passed the chakra barrier that allowed the Konoha Detection Team to know any and all that crossed into their territory. It was nothing. After all, they could never stop him; Plus, he appeared as a civilian with the level of chakra he had.

"Halt! Who goes there?" one of the two guards called. This guard had spiky black hair and a white bandage running across the bridge of his nose.

"Oh chill out Kotetsu. You always act so pompous." the other said. This one had plain chestnut hair that was mostly covered by a bandana that had the standard metal plate symbolizing his allegiance to Konoha.

"Mo, Izumo. I'm just trying to do my job."

"Well, we might as well act kind. I mean, the rest of the villages already sees Konoha as the douchebag of the five nations. You know, ever since that Naruto kid died."

"Yeah, I know. I kinda liked that kid, you know. Always hyper. Didja know I gave Iruka the money to buy the kid ramen once?"

"Really? When did an idiot like you get the money?

Ulquiorra cleared his throat, catching the two's attention. Well then, maybe he wouldn't torture these two like he would the rest of the village. Maybe just a quick death.

"Ah sorry!" Kotetsu said. "So what're you called."

"My name is Cifer Ulquiorra." Ulquiorra said quietly.

"Ah well, what're you doing here? Not many people visit, you know?" Kotetsu drawled rather languidly, earning a smack from Izumo. "Plus, you have a sword. That's always a warning sign."

Ulquiorra looked at his Zanpakuto and shrugged slightly, before walking forward. "Just a family heirloom really. I'm a traveling writer, here to see an old friend."

"Really now! What book are you writin- Abrght!" Kotetsu began to ask before Izumo put a hand over his friend's motermouth.

"Ah that's nice. Enjoy your stay. Don't cause trouble, 'cause that'll be bad. For you and for me."

Ulquiorra nodded and proceeded into Konohagakure. Nothing had changed, it seemed. At least Danzo had the brains to maintain the status quo, or at least make it look like it. But even if the village had changed. He had better things to do.

Ulquiorra set off to the east of the village, not taking time at all to take in the familiar sights and sounds he had forgotten over the timespan of a thousand years. Why should he? This place was dead to him anyway. As he walked though, he took the time to stare up at the Hokage Monument and his eyes grew hard. The past four hokage were still as is, but Tsunade's face had been torn down and replaced with Danzo's wrinkled one, what he would've looked like without his bandages. Well then, sooner or later, there would be some remodeling to be done.

After a few minutes, Ulquiorra reached his destination: The Ramen Ichiraku. It would be fairly simple to smuggle Teuchi and Ayame out of Konoha before he eradicated Konoha. They were only civilians after all. It was by that same reasoning that Ulquiorra didn't blame them for his death. They were only civilians after all; they had neither the strength nor the resources to free him. At least the two of them were always kind to strangers and kept to themselves. It would be like an unofficial welcome.

Ulquiorra took a deep breath and ducked his head into the small shack.

Teuchi's kind face smiled at him. He was a middle-aged man, but the years had been kind to him. The wrinkles he had were mostly those caused by laughing and smiling, and his short hair was only now starting to gray. "Welcome sir! How may..." Teuchi's eyes normally slitted eyes opened minutely to reveal chipped bronze.

Teuchi's arm flashed and the benovolent-looking Ramen cook held a blade at Ulquiorra's throat. Behind him flashed Ayame, who did the same. Not just any blade either, but Zanpakuto.

"Ulquiorra Cifer; the Cuarto Espada, the Blade of Emptiness and the Right Hand man of Sosuke Aizen, largest captured prisoner in the Seireitei." Teuchi hissed. "Why have you come to this place, and give me reason not to cut off your head right now.

Well then, not quite the welcome he was expecting.

**Chapter END.**

* * *

_WHEW! That took a long time to write. So, as promised, let's talk._

_First is the amount of people saying "Ohmygerd, it's a cliffie!" So shoot me. Ok next. No, but to all of you, you're right. I hate cliffies too, both reading and writing them. Why? Because it's damn hard to start of the chapter with the right feeling. I mean you can't lessen the amount of suspense of energy in the beginning, you have to rekindle it. So, I'll try not to do cliffies._

_Oh wait shit, I just gave you another one. Whoops._

_Next is the "WHY DON'T YOU UPDATE" people, which was less than I liked. Hey, tell me to update faster! It ups my review count and motivates me. But if you're going to do that, give me some feedback too :] The reason I couldn't is because of a few different reasons._

_1. I had Shingles. Yeah, that's right. I'm a freaking teenager, and I got what senior citizens get. Remember when Ulquiorra said "Disease quails under my might?" Yeah, God decided to get me back._

_2. I need to get started on my summer assignments. Four 2-3 page charts, and an Essay isn't going to get itself done. Plus school starts in a week and I still haven't finished half of it. Wish me luck._

_3. SAT and SAT Prep + Asian Tiger Mom. Yup, enough said._

_4. I found this thing called GBA4IOS and found Pokemon Fire Red. Childhood rekindled._

_5. Just life in general. What's your excuse?_

_Ok. The most asked question, I think, is "Why is it NaruHina. I don't like NaruHina, add some Bleach people!". Tough shit. I like NaruHina, and I don't like writing harems or lemons [psst cause I suck at writing them], although I like reading them. So unless you want lower quality stop asking. _

_The way I see it is this. It's not Hinata chasing after Ulquiorra. She won't be able to accept that her Naruto-kun is this cold, emotionless dude, and Ulquiorra won't exactly be chasing after her either. That's a pretty vague enough explanation, right? It'll be slow, and it'll take time. Hopefully, you'll deal with it, and maybe enjoy it. _

_Ok, I have planned out the beginning of a Soul Society Arc. It'll take place in the Fullbring arc of Bleach. You'll see. I was actually planning on having Ulquiorra and Temari die with Chiyo and sent all three to Rukongai, but I decided that was way to Deus Ex Machina and nobody would like it, even me. My hint to you? Read The Burdened Deathcake by Naruto 6023. Great fic. Kisuke and Teuchi._

_Right, my newest review was in Spanish. Thanks! Send me all kinds of reviews in all kinds of languages! I'm perfectly fluent in Google Translate!_

_Ok... So the deal with Teuchi will be revealed, or read the Burdened Deathcake, as I said. _

_Did any of you notice how Ulquiorra seemed to shift from cold and indifferent to more prone to sadness and emotion as the story developed? Yeah, well that's because Naruto is slwly beginning to influence him. Subtly, but it's there. What did you think of it?_

_In fact, what did you think of the whole thing? From the in-depth description of Sasori's inner struggle to Gaara's resurruction. Granted, we'll see Sasori again, I always liked him._

_Special Thanks to Kenchi618, Naruto 6023, S'TarKan, KitsuneDragon, Deus Swiftblade, Lanky Nathan, BlackPlant, Frytrix, DemonAndAGun, hornet07, Simsaru, and Coolkid93. Either former group of people by giving me inspiration while reading youse stories, (though you'll probably never read this), and the latter group is the small crowd of people that have either stuck through me since Chapter 1 and found this small story, or have taken the time to write a large well-thought out review that made me seriously think about my writing. And of course, to you the reader, thanks for reading this chapter._

_Thanks y'all (was that too sentimental?)_

_Review, Favorite, and Follow! _

_Seoul out._


	5. 911 Birthday Blurb for you

Hey all.

Sorry for the disappointment if you were expecting a chapter, but I just wanted to take a break from my writing and give a heartfelt thank-you to the heroes of the 9/11 attack that devastated America over a decade ago. Those firemen, policemen, or even just normal citizens who happened to be in the right place and time to help out, (cause you probably don't sit here reading fanfiction) I want to thank you.

And more than that, I want to offer my condolences to those that had loved ones killed in the attack, either from the tower or the plane. Sometimes, I think we forget that the people that are affected the most aren't the people who died, but the people who survived and have to live with the loss of a loved one. No one can truly fill the hole left in your heart the same way.

So, that's really all I wanted to say, no updates, though I am writing as best I can. I'm sure y'all are tired of all the people commenting and posting stuff like this (my facebook news feed has blown up with 9/11 pictures and stuff). I for one have never lost a love one to the attack, I was still in Korea haah... But I have a close friend of mine who did, and have had loved ones die on me; not quite the same, but.. I don't usually do this, but I just felt obligated to do this today, for some reason.

A New Beginning is being written as we speak, have the outline done and everything. Maelstrom of Honor is in planning. Finished the outline and am just waiting to finish the next chapter of New Beginning (I also have to find a way to have Ulquiorra not kill Teuchi or Ayame without making him look wimpy). So keep an eye out for that.

Yeah, so don't flame me for this not being an update. This'll actually probably stay up here until I update this, or for at least another week, since I want you people to read this status update, and since I gave some good story recommendation for y'all (to read while waiting for me to get my ass in gear.)

Full of Seoul

P.S. Part of the reason I'm posting this is because 9/11 is my birthday. Yeah, for real. Happy Birthday to me.

P.P.S So you don't kill me for getting your hopes up, I'll direct you people to a rather Naruto story I found. It's called "But I AM Madara!" by Kyong kybis, where Madara (when he's a kid and still a nice guy) is sent to the future. It's fun, trust me, though his chapter length isn't anything to be proud of. It'll maybe last you a day or two for you fast readers. Another would be "New Identity in the Past" by Dreamyin. This one is about Naruto trying to send himself back in time after losing the war. Yeah, sound generic? But then, instead of it working, he's stuck in another person's body. Obito's. Yeah, mindblown. This one is one of my personal favorites. So go waste time with that, and I'll see you people soon.


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